


I Remember

by Yusuke_Uchiha



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Angel Yu, Angst, Blood Drinking, Blood Kink, Devil Kanji, Fluff and Smut, Hand Jobs, Kanji loves to bite, Light Bondage, M/M, Masochism, Masturbation, Nipple Play, Porn With Plot, Rimming, Romance, Self-Lubrication, Separation Anxiety, Yu loves to eat ass, mention of sexual assault
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-24
Packaged: 2021-03-28 00:54:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 25,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30131520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yusuke_Uchiha/pseuds/Yusuke_Uchiha
Summary: Kanji is a lowly devil who is bored with Hell so he decides to sneak into Limbo to see what it's like. He's disappointed until he finds an apple tree and gets snagged by a trap. Tied to the tree, he's approached by the angel who set the trap, and with the ropes binding him, he's at the angel's mercy.But maybe he doesn't mind that too much.
Relationships: Narukami Yu/Tatsumi Kanji
Comments: 6
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter 1

Limbo. The empty, neutral land between Heaven and Hell. Kanji had heard about it, of course. Every poor soul taken to Hell was informed of it just in case, by some miracle, one of them wound up there. 

For those in Hell, the path to redemption was long, arduous, and often impossible, depending on your crimes, of course. Kanji was lucky in that regard. His crimes were nothing too severe. Beating up a biker gang was, technically, a sin, but in Lucifer’s own words, “They had it coming.” Maybe that was why Kanji was given more freedom than most of the other devils in Hell. Freedom enough that he could easily slip past Hell’s scant guards protecting the way to Limbo.

It was a grave offense to visit the place before you were called, but Kanji’s curiosity had long since overcome his self-preservation. Besides, his offenses were already pretty light, to begin with, so he reasoned he could take whatever punishment they gave him for venturing here before his time. It wasn’t like he was going to get called here anytime soon, anyway. No matter how light your crime, it could take years, sometimes decades to be given your chance to go before God and his angels to seek redemption. And even given the chance, most were just sent right back.

There was no real “door” between Limbo and the other two planes because the guards of Hell and the Archangels of heaven both thought the threat of punishment enough of a deterrent to keep people away. And for most, it was enough. But Kanji had never been one for following senseless rules, and he truly didn’t see any sense in keeping people out of Limbo.

It wasn’t like a devil could just wander into Heaven from Limbo without getting caught and immediately sent back. Nor could an angel just stroll into Hell without getting reported to one of the Archangels. So really, what was the point in telling people they couldn’t come here?

That’s what Kanji told himself as he made his way through the short hallway that connected Hell to Limbo, and when he stepped out the other side, he had to raise his clawed hand to cover his eyes. His wrist bumped the front of his black horns as he tried to get his red eyes to focus properly. Hell wasn’t exactly dark, but nor was it ever this bright. It took a couple of seconds, but after blinking several times, Kanji’s eyes adjusted well enough for him to look around.

And he was… underwhelmed. It didn’t look much different from the forests on the outskirts of Inaba. There just wasn’t a park with benches and a gazebo to sit under. But there was an open area nearby with what looked like a stage made of marble with a podium made of the same material sitting on top. A marble path led up to the stage, and right in front of it was a circular platform, raised only a few inches off the ground and made of a darker shade of marble.

That podium must be where the Archangels stand when delivering judgment and the podium was probably for the poor devil who was seeking redemption. Kanji had long decided it wasn’t worth it to try. He’d seen far too many devils get thrown back into Hell with their jaws and their spirits broken. God might have talked a big talk about redemption, but he obviously didn’t walk the walk. 

Kanji walked away from the stage and toward the trees. He wasn’t sure if there would be animals or anything here, but somehow he doubted it. All of the animals went to Heaven apart from the serpents, which was awfully shitty in Kanji’s humble opinion. Lucifer possessed a snake once so now all serpents have to be punished? Yet another reason Kanji wasn’t in any hurry to get to Heaven.

As he walked through the trees, he found he’d been right. There were no animals, not even insects. But there were flowers, and the leaves gave off a really nice scent. There wasn’t plant life in Hell, so it had been a long time since Kanji had smelled flowers, grass, or leaves. He took it in as he walked, and the longer he went on, the stronger the scent of flowers became. It didn’t take him long to realize it was because he was encountering more and more flowers with every step until he had to start actively avoiding stepping on them.

He kept going until he eventually reached a small clearing in the trees, and sat in the middle was another tree. This one taller than the others, and Kanji’s eyes widened at the sight of several large and perfectly ripe apples hanging from its branches. 

A trap. An obvious one, too. You’d think God wouldn’t try the same trick twice. Still, Kanji hadn’t had an apple in a very long time, either, and he knew he was going to get caught eventually anyway. May as well get an apple out of this trip since sight-seeing had been a complete bust.

He approached the tree, looking carefully as he went to see if he could spot whatever was going to trigger the trap, but he didn’t see anything. Probably Heaven magic or some shit. Whatever. He stood on his tiptoes to reach for the closest apple and plucked it from the tree with no trouble. He was a mere second from lowering it to his mouth when his wrist was suddenly snagged by what looked like some sort of rope made of light.

He lost his grip on the apple and groaned as he raised his other hand to try to free his wrist. Was this part of the trap? If so, it was a dumb one. He tried using his black claws to cut at the rope, but the second his claws touched it, another rope came down, trapping that hand, as well.

What the hell? What sort of trap was this?

He pulled at the ropes, but they didn’t budge even a little. So he pressed his clawed, magenta foot against the tree and tried to use it as leverage to make the pulling easier. But it still didn’t move, and it made his tail stand up in fear. This wasn’t the sort of trap he’d ever seen used to capture escaped devils before. Something was very wrong here.

“Huh, what do we have here?”

The voice had Kanji’s pointed ears twitching and he spun around to find an angel looking at him. His mouth hung open. Kanji didn’t see angels very often, for obvious reasons, but this one… Damn, he was beautiful, way more beautiful than even the few Archangels Kanji had seen. His hair was silvery grey, and his eyes held the same blue that every angel’s did. But behind that blue Kanji saw a mischievous sheen that made his devil heart thump for the first time in ages. 

His robes were pure white and so bright that they were close to making Kanji have to squint, and his wings weren’t far behind. They were made of feathers just like all angel wings were, but the feathers were much smoother than other feathers he’d seen. This guy must have taken very good care of his wings.

“Well, this is a predicament, isn’t it?” the angel asked, crossing his arms and taking a few steps closer, his robes blowing behind him as he walked. “I set a trap for an angel and a devil stumbles into it.”

Kanji’s eyes narrowed. “Hang on, what? You were trying to catch an angel?”

The angel nodded and stepped even closer, eyeing Kanji intently the whole time. “Devils don’t normally wander in here, so why did you?”

Kanji shrugged. “Dunno. Just wanted to see what it looked like, I guess.”

The angel grinned and chuckled lightly as he shook his head. “You risked punishment from Hell’s guards just because you were curious? Didn’t anyone ever tell you what curiosity did to the cat?”

“I ain’t a cat,” Kanji answered flatly. “Now you wanna let me go since I’m not what you wanted to catch?”

Those blue eyes shimmered and his lips curled into a smirk as he closed the remaining distance between himself and Kanji. Starting from Kanji’s wrist, he ran his fingertips down, through the fur on Kanji’s arms and to his smooth neck where he let his hand just rest. 

And Kanji froze. That… what the hell was that? His fingers. They felt… _good_ ? He hadn’t been in Hell so long that he’d forgotten what pleasure felt like, but this absolutely should _not_ be possible. No devil was allowed to feel that. It was part of their punishment.

“Hmm,” the angel hummed. “Well, that’s interesting. You can feel good while you’re _here_?”

His hand moved again, this time trailing down the center of Kanji’s chest, and the tickle of his fingertips had Kanji’s heart thumping again. Shit… This was… No one had touched him like this even _before_ his ability to feel pleasure had been stripped from him, so to have it done to him now… 

“Tell me, devil,” the angel said huskily. “What was your sin?”

That soft, gentle hand was now moving down and over Kanji’s abs, so he had to practically force out, “Kanji. My name is Kanji.”

The hand stalled where it was, fingertips resting just barely above the waistband of Kanji’s black shorts. The angel met his eyes, and when he did, Kanji’s cheeks burned. The mischief was still there, but there was something else with it, a sort of ravenous flame that made Kanji think he was about to be eaten. Angels didn’t do that, did they?

“All right, Kanji,” the angel whispered, bringing his lips to Kanji’s chin. “What was your sin?”

The words sent hot breaths crashing against Kanji’s chin and neck, and Kanji’s hands clenched into tight fists as he tried to stay still. This angel… it was like his fingers were awakening Kanji’s every nerve, and his body was reacting instinctively, seeking out more contact against his will.

“I… beat up a biker gang,” Kanji managed to say, his voice coming out strained as he tried to hold back from moaning. 

“A biker gang?”

Kanji nodded. “They were… causing trouble in the neighborhood and keeping my mom up at night. So I kicked their asses.”

Another hum was followed by the angel moving up so that his lips were even with Kanji’s left ear. His breaths trickling inside sent a pleasant chill all the way through Kanji’s body. 

“That’s all?” the angel asked. “No other sins?” 

Kanji’s heart was full-on pounding now. He had no idea why this angel was doing this, but he was barreling quickly toward not giving a damn. It just felt so good.

Kanji gave a weak shrug and answered, “It’s what got me… sent to Hell. So I guess it was all your boss... cared about.”

“I see,” the angel answered, the tip of his nose brushing against the point of Kanji’s ear. “Figures.”

That last word broke through Kanji’s arousal a little and had him turning his head, “Figures? Whadaya mean?”

The angel shook his head and bumped his nose against Kanji’s. “Is that really what you want to talk about right now? Seems like you might have something else on your mind.”

Well, Kanji couldn’t exactly deny that, could he? His entire body was practically broadcasting what he was thinking about, nevermind how he couldn’t seem to keep the want out of his voice. But they shouldn’t do this, should they? Angel and devil? That was the most forbidden of the forbidden. Like, thrown to the deepest levels of Hell forbidden. 

But fuck… this angel’s eyes. His hands. His voice. His breaths. All of this was so damn intoxicating he thought maybe he wouldn’t mind getting thrown to the bottom of Hell if he got to have this at least once. Someone so beautiful and so clearly experienced… Kanji would be an idiot to turn him down.

“And if I do?” Kanji asked, and the hand on his stomach dipped lower in response. He bit his lower lip, accidentally cutting himself with a fang but not even remotely caring. 

“Then I’d like to take care of you,” the angel answered, his voice lower and more demanding, “If you’ll allow me.”

Kanji snort laughed and glanced up at his wrists, “Not like I could do much to stop you.”

Discomfort snuck into those blue eyes and the angel pulled back a little, “I’m happy to remove them if you’d prefer.”

Kanji’s mouth hung open and his chest tightened at the angel’s sudden lack of confidence. 

“Hey,” Kanji said gently. “I was only kidding. I don’t mind the ropes.”

A silvery eyebrow raised. “Truly? We’ve just met and you trust me enough for that?”

Kanji shrugged again. “I figure if you were gonna kill me, you’d have already done it. Besides, you’ve been giving me the ‘I wanna fuck you’ eyes for the past five minutes. Be kinda hard to do that if I’m dead.”

Some of the levity returned to those blue eyes and the angel chuckled lightly. Since his hands were still bound, Kanji did the only thing he could do and raised the arrow tip of his tail to brush the angel’s pale cheek.

He stared into those ocean blues and said, “But I’d like to at least know your name before you get started.”

One of those sinfully soft hands reached up to gently grasp Kanji’s tail, and Kanji was not even remotely prepared for the sudden wave of pleasure that hit him. Holy shit, what the fuck? Why was his tail so damn sensitive? The angel’s talented fingers danced lightly down the length of Kanji’s tail before stopping to tease at the base, and it brought Kanji close to drooling.

The angel brushed his lips against Kanji’s chin again and purred, “They give us new names when we enter Heaven, but the name I had on Earth was Yu Narukami.”

Yu. Kanji was definitely going to remember that. Not just because it was easy to remember but because Yu was making him feel better than he’d felt in a very long time. And now that he was fully invested in this, he didn’t see the point in hiding how good he felt anymore, so he rolled his hips into Yu’s hand. 

A tongue slithered out to drag across Kanji’s cheek and toward his ear. After dragging his tongue from lobe to tip, Yu whispered, “You are beautiful, Kanji. Has anyone ever told you that?”

Kanji’s cheeks burned hotter, and he squeezed his eyes closed in embarrassment. He thought Yu had to be blind to think so, but he wasn’t gonna drag up his damn self-esteem issues and risk killing the mood.

“Me?” Kanji answered breathily. “You looked in a mirror lately?”

“Hmm,” Yu hummed as he ran his other hand up Kanji’s chest. “I’m afraid mirrors are forbidden in Heaven. Vanity is a sin, remember?”

While still licking at Kanji’s ear and toying with his tail, Yu trailed his hand over to gently nudge at a nipple, and fuck, if Kanji wasn’t being held up by the ropes he’d have definitely crumpled. His heart hadn’t pumped so steadily in some time, and that blood flow was quickly heading south. 

“Sounds like Heaven - ahhh - kind of sucks,” Kanji tried to say, interrupted when Yu pinched his nipple and breathed out in his ear.

Yu laughed softly. “Indeed. I’d never find someone like you up there, that’s for certain.”

The heat was spreading to Kanji’s whole face, now. Stupid angel. He was doing it on purpose, wasn’t he? That wasn’t even remotely fair. 

“Knock it off, you- Ngh!”

Shit, Yu’s hand… He’d just slipped right inside of Kanji’s shorts and he was going to town on one of his ass cheeks, kneading it and squeezing it like he was trying to make bread. And that was, apparently, the final straw since Kanji both felt and saw the tent he made in his shorts. 

“Why?” Yu asked slyly. “When you seem to love it so much.”

Yu followed up by pressing his knee against the tent and making Kanji’s head fall back. Oh god. Oh fuck. Oh shit. 

“Don’t need you to… butter me up,” Kanji struggled to answer. Yu was way too freaking good at this.

Yu chuckled again and rubbed his knee slowly up Kanji’s shaft. “Buttering up implies I’m lying or otherwise exaggerating, but, as I’m sure you’re aware, lying is also a sin.”

Goddammit. Goddamn this stupid angel and his stupidly perfect face. Maybe he really _was_ trying to kill him. If so, he was well on his way to succeeding. 

Yu’s hand finally released Kanji’s nipple and he dropped it down to Kanji’s shorts. He tugged lightly at the waistband before meeting Kanji’s eyes in a silent question. Kanji didn’t know why Yu was still asking for permission when he’d already agreed to this, but he nodded anyway. Yu looked pleased as he brought his other hand forward to grasp the other side of the waistband.

“Would you mind turning around for me, Kanji?” he asked gently, making it obvious he would not be bothered if Kanji said no.

But he wasn’t going to say no. He was fairly certain he’d do just about anything Yu asked him to do, at this point. So he turned, and as soon as his back was facing Yu, the hands on his waistband started tugging. Yu took his sweet ass time pulling them down, too, like he was savoring every damn minute of it for some reason. So by the time the shorts were at his ankles, Kanji’s legs were trembling with anticipation, so much so that stepping out of the shorts was difficult.

Yu placed the shorts neatly nearby, but then he didn’t move, staying knelt right behind Kanji and leaving Kanji confused. He peeked under his arm to see what was going on, and when he did, he saw Yu raise his hands. Then those hands were on Kanji’s ass, kneading at both cheeks and making Kanji’s cheeks burn all over again. He looked away, not wanting Yu to see, but his chuckle told Kanju was probably pointless.

“You…” Kanji started, but he sucked in a breath when Yu’s thumbs moved just a hair too close to his hole. “My ass can’t be that nice.”

“Oh, I’m afraid it can,” Yu answered with a laugh in his voice. “Every inch of you is a work of art.”

Before Kanji’s cheeks had time to get hotter from those sappy words, Yu’s hands pressed against Kanji’s ass in order to spread his cheeks. And Kanji tensed… a lot. No one, not even he, had ever put anything back there. 

“Are you okay?” Yu asked calmly, and his voice soothed Kanji ever so slightly.

Kanji nodded. “Yeah, just… new shit. That’s all.”

He peeked under his arm again in time to see Yu’s eyes start fucking sparkling. Oh crap.

“You shouldn’t have told me that,” Yu said cheekily. “Now I’m going to _have_ to take my time.”

Kanji’s eyes widened and he scrambled to say, “H-Hey! Hang on! You don’t-”

His protest turned to a gasp as Yu leaned in and flatly dragged his tongue over Kanji’s exposed rim. Kanji’s hands clenched again and his back arched completely on instinct. Holy fucking _shit_! 

“Spread your legs,” Yu said with a gentle rub to Kanji’s lower back. “That will make it easier.”

A tiny bit of nervousness was still pricking at Kanji, but it easily took the backseat to how goddamn amazing Yu’s tongue had felt. He spread his shaky legs and even tried to adjust his body so that his back would stay arched and his ass would stick out. But then nothing happened. Yu’s hand stayed on Kanji’s lower back and his other hand wasn’t touching Kanji at all.

Thinking he’d done something wrong, Kanji desperately looked over his shoulder, but when he saw the look on Yu’s face, any questions he might have had vanished. Yu’s eyes were squeezed closed and he was taking long, deep breaths before letting them out through his nose almost silently. Kanji was getting worried now, so he jerked his hips to one side to try and get Yu’s attention.

Yu’s eyes snapped open, and he met Kanji’s right before Kanji said, “ _You_ okay?”

A pensive smile curled on Yu’s lips. “Yes. Forgive me, it’s just been a very long time since someone has actually _wanted_ me…”

That made Kanji’s eyes narrow and his arousal dampen a little. What… did Yu mean by that? The implications made Kanji’s skin crawl, but at the same time, those implications made no sense based on what he’d seen so far. Yu had gone out of his way to make sure Kanji consented to this, so it didn’t make sense for him to…

“Never you mind about any of that,” Yu soothed as he brought his lips to Kanji’s rim again. Kanji let out a sigh as Yu’s breaths hit him. “All I want you to worry about is enjoying yourself.”

He didn’t give Kanji even a fleeting second to respond and put that silver tongue right to work. A tiny prick of concern remained, but it was shoved to the back of Kanji’s mind at lightspeed as Yu stirred him up. His tongue’s movements were slow, meticulous, and every slight movement sent jolts of pleasure through Kanji that made him able to do little more than hang his mouth open and moan. 

Take his time, Yu had said, and Kanji learned just how serious he’d been when Yu didn’t let up, eating Kanji out with almost no pause. He stopped only when he needed to take a breath or readjust, but even those pauses lasted no longer than a second or two before the wet, lewd sounds of his lips and tongue were echoing in the air again. And with every moment that passed, Kanji’s chest warmed and tightened with something far too close to affection. He recognized it right away and told himself to fucking stop, but that accomplished precisely nothing.

Because Kanji knew, even if he didn’t want to think about it, Yu was getting pretty much _nothing_ out of this except maybe a sore jaw. But he was doing it anyway, and with so much enthusiasm that it had long since left Kanji’s dick weeping. No one had ever shown him such care, where it was clear that all they wanted was to make him feel good. How was he supposed to _not_ feel something?

“Fuck!” Kanji cried out desperately. 

That was a breach. Yu’s tongue was inside of him, and goddamn, he thought it had felt good on the outside…

But then that tongue withdrew, and it felt like a heavy blow to Kanji’s chest. 

“Okay?” Yu asked, and Kanji wanted to slap him. He was asking for permission again?

“Yes!” Kanji snapped back in frustration. “It’s always gonna be yes, so for fuck’s sake, don’t stop!”

Those words were followed by a sudden silence, and during that silence, the words he’d just blurted out registered to Kanji. His cheeks burned hotter than ever and his eyes closed tightly. Just fucking throw him to the lowest depths of Hell right now and get it over with. It had to be less painful.

But then Yu laughed, low and smug, and it had Kanji glancing over his shoulder again. Those blue eyes were shimmering again, and it hit Kanji way harder this time. 

“As you wish,” Yu beamed, and Kanji’s legs suddenly felt like limp noodles.

Just… How in the _hell_ was Kanji going to walk away from this angel and never see him again?

That tongue pushing its way back inside of him pushed the question to the back of his mind along with the rest of his worries, but he resolved not to forget it even as Yu’s formerly gentle motions turned rougher and more desperate. 

His tongue delved inside again and again, stretching Kanji’s rim and assaulting his walls with a fervor Yu hadn’t shown before. Kanji moaned ravenously and wrapped his hands around the ropes so that he could more easily lean back against Yu’s mouth. That just felt way too damn good. He had to have more. 

Yu let out a pleased groan and answered Kanji’s plea by pushing a finger in alongside his tongue and subjecting Kanji to that wonderful feeling of being stretched wider. 

“Ahh!” Kanji cried out as his hips moved to chase Yu’s finger and force it in further. More. More. He needed _more_.

“Hmm,” Yu hummed with a chest-melting combination of intrigue and arousal in his voice. “So eager.”

“Damn right!” Kanji snarled. “How long are you gonna screw around like that?”

He wasn’t as embarrassed by his outburst this time. He’d already made himself look like an idiot, so it couldn’t really get much worse. And besides, his desperation for Yu to make him come was overriding pretty much all of his inhibitions at this point.

Yu’s free hand slid inside of his robes as he smirked at Kanji and said, “Yes, I suppose you’re right. I could sit here devouring you for hours, but we _are_ on a bit of a time limit.”

Hours? That had Kanji swallowing and his dick twitching. 

“Besides, “Yu went on as his hand emerged holding a glass bottle. “I’m rather anxious to hear what you sound like when you come.”

Yu’s saliva-soaked hand moved to Kanji’s hip, and he kissed a slow trail up Kanji’s back as he got back to his feet. He gave Kanji’s neck a long, slow lick that made Kanji shudder before breathing a hot breath into his ear.

“Would you face me again, Kanji?”

Kanji had never turned around so fast in his life, or his afterlife. He was met with a warm, affectionate grin to go along with those sparkly blue eyes, and it made his chest ache. Dammit. That was it, wasn’t it? He was fucking caught, with or without the ropes. 

“I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but you’ve somehow become even more beautiful,” Yu praised shamelessly, but Kanji had no room left for embarrassment. All the compliment did was go straight to his cock.

“Were you this much of a sap on Earth?” Kanji joked. “Or is it an angel thing?”

Yu smiled and took the cap off of the glass bottle. He was coating his fingers when he answered, “It’s a ‘you’ thing, I’m afraid. You may not believe me, but you truly are the most stunning creature I’ve ever laid eyes on.”

Fuck… Yep. Definitely caught. Why did he have to be an angel? Why did Kanji have to be a devil?

“Yu, I-”

He caught himself once he realized what he was about to say. No. Don’t open that door. Don’t ask for something that you’re gonna regret later.

“What’s on your mind?” Yu asked sweetly, and it brought Kanji dangerously close to throwing inhibitions to the wind. But he stopped himself. He had to. If he was going to walk away, he had to.

“Nevermind,” Kanji said, giving the best smile he could muster. “Keep going… please?”

Yu didn’t say anything, but his narrowed eyes made it obvious. He knew Kanji was hiding something, but Kanji couldn’t feel too guilty about it since Yu obviously had his own secrets. Which was fine. Kanji didn’t need to know them. All he needed right now was to get as much from Yu as he was willing to give before this was over and they were pulled out of this amazing bubble they were floating in.

“Come now,” Yu said teasingly. “What happened to those desperate demands you were shouting earlier?”

Kanji knew his shame was well and truly gone when his cheeks didn’t even remotely heat up. Instead, he smirked and asked, “That what you want?”

Yu grinned slyly and brought his lube-covered fingers down to rub gently at Kanji’s rim. “Perhaps.”

Those rubs turned to presses right after Yu had thoroughly coated Kanji’s hole, and Kanji pressed against those fingers just as he’d done earlier. Yu wanted him to be demanding, then he’d damn well do it if this was what he was gonna get for it. 

“Then hurry you stupid angel,” Kanji growled. “Fill me the fuck up with those fingers.”

And Yu listened so well. With all of the stretching he’d done earlier, two of his fingers slid in with almost no trouble, and Kanji arched his back into it in time for those fingers to start thrusting in and out. The wet, squelching sounds echoed alongside Kanji’s moans, and, fuck, he was gonna come from those alone if he wasn’t careful. 

Yu licked Kanji’s neck again, slow and dirty, before he sighed, “I’m certain of it, now. You’re my Trial of Temptation. You have to be.”

Kanji had no idea what a Trial of Temptation was, but the implications of it were more than enough to drive him toward rutting. Yu’s fingers felt so damn good, but Kanji’s dick was so hard it was actually starting to hurt. 

So Kanji rutted and he rutted hard, letting his dick press full against Yu’s hipbone. Yu’s gasp turned into a moan right before he bit into his bottom lip and slammed his eyes closed. And against all logic, Kanji’s cock filled with even more blood. Holy shit! Yu wasn’t just hard. He was fucking throbbing. For the first time, Kanji’s hands pulled at the ropes in earnest as he instinctively tried to reach down. Because, fuck, he wanted to touch Yu. Even more than he wanted to come.

“Yu, let me g- Ahh!”

Yu’s fingers, those soft, skilled, and delicate fingers were wrapped around his dick, and they were stroking him up and down, matching the pace of his still-thrusting fingers. Kanji’s thoughts turned immediately to mush as his entire body tensed with the orgasm that was now barreling toward him faster than he could ever hope to stop it. No. Too soon. He didn’t want this to be over already.

“Wait!” Kanji barely forced out. “Yu! I’ll-”

“I know,” Yu breathed in Kanji’s ear. “Come Kanji. Show it to me. Show me everything.”

“Don’t… want to,” Kanji protested, even as his body was teetering on the edge. “Want… mo-”

It wasn’t Yu’s hands that cut him off this time. It was his lips, crashing against Kanji’s, and scrambling Kanji’s head so thoroughly that he could no longer focus on trying to hold back his orgasm. So he came, hard, his whole body spasming as he released moan after loud, frantic moan into Yu’s mouth. Cum sprayed all over his chest, only barely missing the fur on his shoulders, so he knew it had to have drenched Yu’s hand as well. If Yu minded, he didn’t show a single sign of it, moaning just as desperately into Kanji’s mouth. 

It took Kanji a long time to come down from the orgasm, and Yu was so patient, giving Kanji the slow, gentle touches he needed to readjust. It was only when Kanji’s hips stopped twitching entirely that Yu let their lips come apart, and as soon as Kanji met his eyes, his heart jumped eight miles in the air. 

Yu’s eyes had been mostly guarded this whole time, but now they were so open and so vulnerable that Kanji was seeing more emotions than he could even keep track of. Desire, hesitation, affection, restraint. Those were the ones he could catch, but they were enough. Yu giving Kanji the kiss he’d been too afraid to ask for earlier had unlocked the door that he’d been trying like hell to keep closed. But Yu letting Kanji see him like this was the kick that flung the door open.

There was no way in hell he was going to be able to walk away and never see Yu again. _No_ fucking way.

Yu’s eyes iced over slightly again, blocking Kanji off as they had been earlier, and it made Kanji’s chest sting even as Yu whispered, “Thank you, Kanji. That was… truly wonderful.”

Those words hung in Kanji’s head for way too long while he tried to register them, but once he did, he said, “Wait, what? You’re talking like this is over.”

Yu let out a chuckle and waved his hand, casting some sort of spell that cleaned all of the cum off of Kanji. But that laugh was where Kanji’s focus was. It was so obviously fake. In fact, now that he’d seen a glimpse into Yu’s real feelings, he was questioning how much of Yu’s cocky and light-hearted attitude was a fabrication.

“Well, as much as I’d like to stay and enjoy you for a while longer, we’re both out of time,” Yu said with an obviously forced smile. “I’ll be missed soon, and I imagine Hell’s guards will realize before long that they’re one devil short.”

“The hell do I care about the guards?” Kanji bit back. “You went and prepped my ass and everything, and now you’re trying to take off before you’ve even finished?”

All of the pretend levity vanished in an instant as Yu seemed to realize his attempt at dodging Kanji’s inquiries wasn’t going to work. After taking a breath, he waved his hand, and it let out a light glow before Kanji felt the ropes around his wrists loosen. The fur on the top of his forearms had mostly prevented marks from appearing, but the bare, tender underside of his arms had some light bruising. Nothing that anyone would really notice since people were always getting hurt in Hell.

But now that his arms were free, he decided this was the perfect time to finally get to feel Yu’s skin under his hands, so he reached for him, trying to take him by his waist. Yu didn’t just pull away, he jerked back as if Kanji’s hands were fire that would burn him, and his eyes were glued to the ground as if he couldn’t bring himself to look at Kanji anymore. It stung, a lot, and had Kanji shrinking back like a kicked puppy.

“Sorry…” Kanji said pitifully. “Am I being pushy?”

Yu’s eyes shot right up, and panic had overtaken his usually calm face. “No! It’s not that. I…”

Yu wrapped his arms around himself, and Kanji couldn’t believe how quickly his entire demeanor was changing from the confident, suave man who’d just blown his fucking mind to a nervous wreck. 

“Yu?” Kanji said carefully. “What’s going on? Why don’t you want me to touch you?”

Yu shook his head. “It’s not that I don’t want you to. I _do_ want you to. I want it more than I can say.”

Now Kanji was even more confused, so he just aimed a questioning stare at Yu, silently asking him to elaborate. 

Yu only looked even more uncomfortable when he said, “I’m an angel, Kanji. We are bound by the rules of Heaven, and I’m sure you know that sin is forbidden.”

Kanji didn’t consider himself super intelligent or anything, but it didn’t take a genius to understand what Yu was telling him. And it made his blood boil.

“Yu… are you telling me that…?”

Yu nodded. “Lust is a sin. I can touch you or anyone else as much as I want because I’m not the one being physically pleased by it. But the moment someone touches me and I reach completion, it’s over.”

It was exactly what Kanji thought, and that only made him angrier. That was just… fucking cruel, and it had Kanji thinking back to something Yu had said earlier. 

‘ _It’s been a very long time since someone has actually_ wanted _me_ …’

No wonder. If Yu tried to be intimate with anyone in Heaven, they’d have to refuse him and fight it the whole time, even if they actually _did_ want it. But did that mean…?

No. There was no sense thinking about that. Kanji needed to focus on the here and now, and right now, Yu needed his full attention. He took a step closer, making sure to keep his hands down to his sides to keep from worrying Yu.

“Isn’t there some way?” Kanji asked genuinely. “A loophole or something?”

Yu’s eyes fell again, and he shook his head. “A loophole? No. A way? Perhaps. I’ve been working toward it for some time, but it’s going to take a long time, yet.”

Kanji’s heart fluttered with a tiny bit of hope. “Really? What is it? Can I help?”

Yu flashed a very pained smile and answered, “Please don’t ask me, Kanji. If we must part ways, I’d just as soon not tarnish your image of me or the pleasures we just shared.”

Tarnish. Not fucking likely. Kanji took another step closer and said, “That’s not gonna happen, Yu. So will you just-”  
  
“No,” Yu said flatly. “I will not. No matter how many times you ask, I will not tell you. So please, Kanji. Just carry this with you as a pleasant memory and go back to Hell. It’s better that way.”

Kanji’s eyebrows ran together and he near-shouted, “How the hell is that better?”

Kanji immediately regretted his outburst, but rather than looking angry, Yu just seemed exhausted, like he really didn’t want to keep having this conversation.

Yu sighed, raised a hand to rub the back of his neck, and said, “Even if I manage to accomplish my goal, and that’s a _big_ if, it could take anywhere from decades to centuries. And during that time, I think we both know that seeing each other would be a risk neither of us can afford to keep taking. If we’re caught, you’ll be thrown into the very depths of Hell. As for me, at best I’ll be knocked down to the very bottom of the angel pecking order. At worst, I’ll have my wings stripped and be thrown to Earth to spend the rest of eternity as a fallen angel. Either way, it will undo everything I’ve done so far.”

Kanji’s mouth had been open and ready for him to respond to whatever Yu said, but after hearing him lay everything out like that, Kanji realized he didn’t really have any way to respond. He was right. Kanji might not have been worried about the risk, but it wasn’t fair to expect Yu to be okay with it, as well. He clearly had way more to lose than Kanji had.

But still, it just didn’t seem right. 

Kanji closed the remaining distance between him and Yu and tried again to reach for him. Yu didn’t jerk away this time, but he still tensed up and warned, “Kanji…”

“I’m not gonna do anything I promise,” Kanji assured him, and while Yu didn’t look even close to comfortable, he at least lowered his guard.

Taking that as permission, Kanji wrapped his arms around Yu’s stiff shoulders. Yu tensed even more, and even his perfect feathers stood on end as Kanji tucked his face into the side of Yu’s warm neck. He smelled like Earth and flowers. Whether that was because of their location or it was just his usual scent, Kanji didn’t know, but either way, it was calming. 

He ran a clawed hand gently through Yu’s hair and asked, “Do you want to see me again?”

Yu’s shaky hands rose, as well, draping hesitantly around Kanji’s waist. “Of course I do. But with what I’m trying to accomplish, I simply cannot take any unnecessary risks. As much as I would enjoy being able to see you, it’s not necessary for my plan to succeed.”

Yu was still, technically, rejecting him, but it made Kanji feel better to know that at least his feelings were reciprocated. But he felt far from good enough to let this go. He was determined to see Yu again, even if he had to purposely come here and get himself caught a second time. Hopefully, that wouldn’t be necessary.

“What are you trying to accomplish?” Kanji asked. “Will you at least tell me that?”

Yu’s grip on Kanji’s waist tightened, and he stayed quiet for several seconds. Kanji was disappointed, but he couldn’t say he blamed him. This was obviously something huge, otherwise, Yu wouldn’t be so secretive about it, and it wasn’t like he knew Kanji that well. They literally just met today.

“Sorry,” Kanji said, guilt lacing his voice. “I shouldn’t-”

“I’m trying to overthrow God.”

The words were spoken so quietly that Kanji almost didn’t hear them, and even though he did, his immediate assumption was that he’d heard him wrong. There was no way Yu had just said what Kanji thought he said.

“Did you say… overthrow God?”

He repeated it just as quietly, and when Yu nodded, it felt like a boulder was dropped on Kanji’s chest. Jesus fucking Christ. 

“How? That’s… That’s insane.”

Yu turned his head so he could rest it in the crook of Kanji’s neck. “The how doesn’t matter, and neither does the insanity. It has to be done. God may have started out a kind, loving deity, but ever since Lucifer betrayed him, he’s become cold, authoritarian, and so strict that Heaven is more prison than paradise.”

That was obvious by the things Yu had been telling him since the start, but the very thought of Yu trying to do something so dangerous… Kanji tightened his grip on him. It was one thing to never see him again because it was what Yu wanted. It was another thing entirely to never see him again because he’d been cast out of Heaven. There would be literally _no_ way for Kanji to ever see him again if that happened.

“Yu… Is there no other way?”

One of Yu’s hands came up to gently stroke between Kanji’s collar bones. It felt so nice that it made Kanji’s stomach twist into a knot. Kanji really didn’t want this to have to end here.

“I’m afraid not,” Yu answered. “No one is willing to even speak ill of God much less stand up to him. Not surprising when he could quite literally unmake them if he so chose. But someone has to do it. If we’re to live in Heaven for the rest of our immortal lives, it should not be under the boot of a tyrant who no longer understands the concept of forgiveness or redemption.”

The more Yu spoke, the more foolish Kanji felt. He was so damn selfish, wanting Yu to risk jeopardizing such an important mission just to see him, a nobody, and a devil. This mission was definitely more important than Kanji could ever be.

“You’re right,” Kanji admitted sadly. “It’s just… I know it probably seems dumb to you, but I really don’t want to leave here and never see you again.”

“I know,” Yu answered, sounding just as crestfallen as Kanji. “But that doesn’t necessarily have to be.”

Kanji’s eyes shot open wider and he turned his head to look at Yu. “Doesn’t have to be?”

Yu smiled up at him, a real smile this time, and said, “If I succeed, devils will have a real chance at redemption for the first time in millennia. And with your sins being so minor…”

The cogs ticked into place in Kanji’s mind, and he was suddenly overcome with elation. Shit, Yu was right. The only thing keeping Kanji out of Heaven was God. If he was out of the picture…

But the elation was crushed quickly enough when he remembered what Yu had told him earlier. Decades or even centuries. He would have to leave Yu, potentially not see him for hundreds of years (or ever again if his mission were to fail.) Either way, he was going to be away from Yu for an unbearably long time, so the possibility of seeing him again wasn’t as much of a comfort as Kanji would like. 

“You’ll forget me before that happens,” Kanji said pathetically. 

The words made his skin crawl, but he couldn’t take them back when he legitimately believed them. Why would Yu remember someone like him in the face of such an important mission?

Yu’s hands cupped Kanji’s face and he made him turn his head. Those blue eyes burned with resolve when he stated plainly, “I will _not_.”

Yu couldn’t lie, so Kanji knew he believed what he said, but Kanji wasn’t a complete idiot. Memory was a very fickle thing.

“Yeah you will,” Kanji rebutted petulantly. “I’m just some nobody devil you’ve only met one time.”

Yu chuckled for what felt like the millionth time, but it didn’t sound fake like the last one had. Yu leaned up to cover Kanji’s lips in a deep, slow kiss that put a small damper on Kanji’s nerves. Fuck… every single thing Yu did to him just felt so good. This whole situation was so damned unfair.

Yu kept his lips only a centimeter from Kanji’s when he said, “Let me ask you something, Kanji. Do you think I’m the type of angel to go around rimming every devil I see?”

Kanji’s cheeks heated up, his dick twitched, and the memory tongue-tied him so much that all he could do was swallow heavily. Yu shook his head before pressing his forehead against Kanji’s.

“Angels, whether born or initiated, have the ability to see souls,” Yu said soothingly. “I knew from the moment I laid eyes on you that your soul was not only pure but also _very_ compatible with mine.”

Compatible? Kanji didn’t know what it was about his soul that made it so compatible with Yu’s, but it explained why something seemed to just click between them. Still, Kanji didn’t really know where he was going with this, so he shrugged.

“Okay? And?”

“Aaaand,” Yu said suggestively with a cheeky grin. “I knew I wanted to make you mine, so I decided to do something to make sure you’d never forget me.”

Kanji’s mouth hung open and he stared at Yu with what he knew was a stupid expression. Was he… serious?

“You’d… better not be messing with me,” Kanji said defensively, hating how scared he sounded.

Yu’s expression turned to concern and he cocked his head to the side. “Is it so unthinkable that I would want you? Do you truly think so lowly of yourself?”

Kanji’s eyes dropped and he bristled a little. Lack of self-esteem had always been one of his greatest vices, and he hated that Yu was seeing it on full display.

“Kanji, look at me.”

He couldn’t refuse Yu now any more than he could before, so he did as he was asked and saw a pair of very warm eyes looking back at him as well as a bright smile. 

“I meant what I said when I told you that you are the most stunning creature I’ve ever laid eyes on,” Yu said softly. “I would not forget you so easily, but if a guarantee will put you at ease, I can give you that.”

One of Yu’s hands moved out of the corner of Kanji’s eye, so he glanced at it in time to see it pluck one of the feathers out of Yu’s left wing. Yu brushed that feather against Kanji’s cheek before holding it out to him. Kanji had no idea what was happening, but he took it anyway.

“Now, give me something of yours,” Yu said. “Something that won’t fade away.”

Kanji raised an eyebrow at him, still terribly confused, but he started thinking about what he could give him. A fang? Nah. Too small. A small pelt of his fur? Possible, but he’d bleed like hell and make a huge mess. He could easily shed one of his claws, but those damn things go brittle too fast after they’re disconnected. His tail would grow back if he plucked it off, but it seemed creepy to give him a tail that would rot and shrivel up. 

Wait… grow back. That was right. He’d lost horns more times than he could count through one silly accident or another. There wasn’t any bleeding, and they always grew back just as fast as his tail. That would do. 

Reaching up to his forehead, he used his claws to sort of saw through one of his horns. When it broke off, the end was jagged and messy, but Yu didn’t seem to care since he just smiled from ear to ear. He held a hand up, and it glowed with another spell. Both the feather and the horn lit up the same color as his hand, and they glowed that way for a few seconds before going dim.

Kanji cocked his head to the side and asked, “What was that?”

Yu slid the horn into his robes, brushed a hand over Kanji’s cheek, and answered, “As long as you keep that feather and as long as I hold this horn, we will have a connection, one that I can exploit to a certain degree.”

A connection? Kanji liked the sound of that.

“To a certain degree?”

Yu looked a little dejected when he said, “Don’t get too excited. It’s not like a telephone or anything like that. But once a week I can send you something. Something that will let you know that I haven’t forgotten you.”

Kanji felt a little dejected himself, but he tried not to let it show. It wasn’t what he wanted, but it was the best he could really hope for given their situation. And if Yu really did send him something once a week, it would probably be enough to keep his hopes up.

“How am I gonna know what it is that you’re sending me?” Kanji asked. “Random shit shows up in Hell all the time.”

Yu grinned and nuzzled his head against Kanji’s. “Believe me. You’ll know.”

Yu turned a little to lay a slow, gentle kiss on the side of Kanji’s neck, and while it felt nice, it also made Kanji’s stomach tighten even more. This was it. In a moment, he was going to have to walk away, not knowing when, if ever, he’d see Yu again. The tightness in his stomach moved to his throat, but he forced it back down. No. You’re not gonna fucking cry. You’re gonna take this like a man because Yu needs you to.

So he let out the tension in his body by wrapping his arms tighter around Yu and dragging him into a kiss. He took his time with it and made sure to kiss Yu like it was the last kiss they’d ever share… because it might be. 

Pulling away was the hardest thing he’d ever done, and when he did, he said, “Be careful. Please.”

Yu bumped his nose against Kanji’s. “Don’t worry. Now that I know you'll be waiting for me, I have even more motivation to see this done. I _will_ finish my mission, and I _will_ come for you as soon as I do.”

Yu knew that Kanji knew that this wasn’t a promise he could 100% make, but Kanji chose to believe him anyway. That was the only way he could pry himself away from Yu and take a step back.

“Okay,” Kanji strained to say. “Then… till I see you again?”

Yu nodded. “Absolutely. Keep your chin up, Kanji.”

Then Yu turned and started walking away, but Kanji couldn’t move. He was afraid if he tried to move before Yu was out of sight, he’d chase him down and try to keep him here for as long as he could. So he stayed completely frozen until he was sure Yu was gone. Even then, it was difficult to peel his feet up from their place near the tree. 

He glanced down to where Yu had placed his shorts and picked them up, sliding them back on with more than a little difficulty. His legs felt like fucking lead. Still, though, he managed to make his way back to Hell where, surprisingly, the guards never even noticed he was gone. That was a small mercy, at least.

Then he went to his tiny shack that he called home, went to his mostly-empty bedroom, and flopped onto the ever-uncomfortable bed. He laid there for hours, staring at the ceiling and trying to burn everything that just happened into his memory so he could have it to hold on to. He was going to need it.

The next week passed painfully slowly since he basically spent every minute of the day missing Yu and dying to see him again. It was almost enough for him to sneak out to Limbo again despite his silent agreement that he wouldn’t.

Then the seventh day came, and when he went home at the end of that day, he made his way to his bedroom like always. Only this time, he froze in the doorway as he noticed something completely out of place. 

An apple, sitting on the rickety nightstand next to his bed. His heart thumped, and he rushed to pick it up, trying to make sure it was real. And it was. Not only that, but there was something on it, burned into the skin with some sort of spell. When he held it up to the small torch lighting his room, he breathed a heavy sigh of relief as he read what it said.

_I remember._


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so the moral of my account is never trust the number of chapters I say something is going to be because I can never be trusted to keep to a limit. XD

“You coming with, Kanji?”

Kanji was standing at the doorway of the armory, turning in his weapons and making note of the number of times he’d used them today. Zero, thankfully. Since joining the guard, he’d tried very hard to avoid harming his fellow devils as much as he could. 

He closed the door to the armory and glanced over his shoulder to see the female guard who’d spoken to him standing nearby with a small group of other devils. They were trying to invite him out for drinks, and a bunch of drunk devils in the same room inevitably turned into a brawl, especially when she was involved. She loved a good fight. Plus, with most devils, the desire for pleasure had long since been replaced with a desire for drunkenness and pain. Those, at least, were things devils could actually feel.

“Nah, I’m beat,” Kanji answered, waving a hand at his co-worker dismissively. “You guys go ahead.”

The light-skinned, grey-furred demoness took a few steps closer and said, “Come on, you stick in the mud. We’re in Hell. May as well do whatever you want.”

Kanji sighed and turned in time to see her trying to close the remaining distance between them, but she wasn’t moving like she normally would. There was a fluidness to her movements, and she was obviously trying to accentuate her toned legs and make her small (but admittedly nice) breasts bounce with every movement. She wasn’t the first devil to try this with him, and he was sure she wouldn’t be the last, but it wasn’t going to go any better for her than it had the others.

He took a step back. “What I want is to go home and get to bed. Maybe next time.”

She rolled her eyes and tucked a short, light brown strand behind her ear. “You’ve been saying ‘maybe next time’ for seventy years.”

“And yet you keep trying,” Kanji answered jovially, not wanting to sound like a dick. “Seems like you’d have gotten the hint by now.”

She giggled and batted her eyes uselessly. “Maybe I’m just not willing to give up on something I really want.”

Well, he couldn’t begrudge her for that, could he? Not with the ridiculous number of apples he’d eaten over these past seven decades. He knew he was going to find one waiting for him when he went home, and it was one of the reasons he was in such a hurry to leave. 

“You’re gonna be disappointed,” Kanji told her. 

She shrugged. “That remains to be seen.”

She tried to step toward him again, but he stepped back even further this time. His chest stung with guilt when he saw the momentary vulnerability come over her previously confident eyes. He’d known rejecting her was gonna suck, but that didn’t make it any easier.

She might have been mischievous, but her crimes were not much worse than his. Honestly, she was more hero than villain, sticking a knife in the neck of a powerful politician who used his position to avoid being caught running a damn sex trafficking ring. In another life, he’d have been more than happy to be with someone so ballsy, but a pair of sparkly blue eyes were never far from his mind. He couldn’t give her what she wanted.

“You really should give up, Chie” Kanji said gently. “This isn’t going to happen. Not with you or anyone else here.”

She glanced at the floor before taking a more lazy stance and crossing her arms. There she stood for a couple of seconds, looking like she was contemplating something.

Her foot tapped a few times before she gave Kanji a knowing look and said, “I don’t know who you’re waiting for, Kanji, but they must be pretty amazing.”

Kanji’s head snapped up in surprise, and he stared at Chie with wide eyes. Damn. She was a lot more observant than he realized. 

He flashed a small grin before turning to head out the opposite door, “I’ll see you later, Chie.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she answered cheerfully. “You’d better introduce me, one day! I wanna see who I’m losing to!”

Kanji laughed quietly and threw a lazy wave over his shoulder before walking through the door and out of the barracks. The streets were as loud and chaotic as they always were. Hell was mostly lawless, after all. At any time, a brawl or a turf war could break out, and if you were caught in the middle of it, the guards wouldn’t usually help you. Kanji, Chie, and a tiny handful of other guards were the only ones who would, consistently anyway.

He had to dodge around a brawl on his way back to his slightly larger shack. He’d been able to get a slightly less shitty house after joining the guard. With his record of service, he could easily get one of the really nice places closer to Lucifer’s palace, but the closer to Lucifer you got, the worse the turf wars became. And he just didn’t care enough about a Hell house to fight over it.

Besides, being in one of these shacks in the outskirts of Hell’s capital granted him privacy, privacy that he’d sorely needed over the last seventy years.

He opened the door to his shack and lit a couple of the torches so he could actually see while he walked to his room. His hand nudged his bedroom door, and it creaked as it opened. And there, sitting on his nightstand like it always, was an apple. Just like Yu had promised him, once a week, on the dot. Curious what the message was this time, Kanji picked the apple up and when he read the words, his lips curled into a bittersweet smile.

_I miss you._

Yu had sent him that message before, but it wasn’t very often. Normally, his messages were somewhere between positive and neutral. Kanji had long started assuming that Yu sent more melancholy ones when he was struggling, and he hated that he couldn’t do anything to ease Yu’s troubles. The only thing he could do was what he’d been doing: wait for him. It’s what Yu needed from him, so he would keep doing it for as long as it took. 

The apples made it easier, that was for certain. As long as these were arriving, it meant Yu was still fighting. It meant there was still a chance Kanji would get to see him again. And maybe next time, he could… 

The image of himself peeling open Yu’s robes and running his hands over every inch of him flashed through Kanji’s mind, and no matter how arousing it should have been, all it did was make his hair stand on end. So he raised the apple to his lips and took a bite. His fangs pierced the tender peel, and as soon as the juicy center hit his tongue, he felt the familiar sensation of his nerves waking up. It happened every time he ate one of these apples, and it made him wonder if Yu had known that or if it was just a happy coincidence.

He had no idea why the apples did this to him. Maybe it was because they came from Limbo and his pleasure senses returned while he was there, but it hardly mattered. The apples gave him a brief couple of hours where he could actually feel again, and he always took advantage of it. He could lay in bed and lose himself in the memory of Yu’s hands, his tongue, his voice, his scent, and his eyes. Those fucking gorgeous eyes.

He winced and nearly dropped the apple when a sudden spark of pleasure hit him. Shit. His sensations had returned enough for him to get hard, apparently, since his cock was pressing against his shorts. He needed to finish the damn apple quick so he could get down to business. He skillfully used his claws to cut the apple into smaller pieces so he could eat them easier, and had the entire thing besides the core eaten in only a few moments. He chucked the core into a waste bin and went straight to his bed, flopping onto his back and taking a deep breath.

He didn’t know what fantasy he was going to play in his head today, but he usually didn’t. His mind typically ran away with itself and showed him whatever it felt like, and that was fine with him. Thoughts of Yu were enough to get him going, no matter what they were. So he closed his eyes, slid off his shorts, and waited.

The first thought to cross his mind was Yu, laid out on his back, writhing on the sheets and begging for Kanji to please, please touch him. Sometimes Kanji would imagine teasing him for a little while by rubbing his chest till his nipples hardened and then tweaking at them through the robes. But today he imagined slowly pulling those robes open and diving down to swirl his tongue around both of Yu’s nipples. In his fantasies, Yu always moaned so prettily and tried to hide his face behind his arm so that Kanji wouldn’t be able to see how turned on he was. Kanji never let him hide, of course. He’d pull that arm away and reveal a couple of hazy blue eyes and fiery red cheeks. 

‘Kanji…’ Yu would moan, and hearing his name spoken like that, even if it was only in his head, always made Kanji burn.

His hand was already on his cock, pumping away as the fantasy carried on, and the more turned on he became, the easier the fantasies appeared, until he was so lost in it, the reality outside ceased to be for a little while.

There was no shack. No Hell. Just the image of him touching, licking, and worshipping every inch of Yu’s body, making him come again and again to make up for all of the years he’d been unable to do that. Every time he pictured Yu coming, Kanji would naturally reach the edge himself, so he had to stop, slow down. Maybe it was unsightly to be lying here edging himself again and again, but he could only feel this for a couple of hours a week and he wasn’t going to waste it by coming too quickly. Especially when there was no shortage of fantasies for him to use. 

His imagination usually led him to images of Yu fucking him, but this time… this time he was the one fucking Yu. Thrusting himself inside, and hearing Yu’s moans become higher and higher pitched as he was driven closer and closer to coming. Kanji liked to imagine it would feel that much better if he worked Yu’s dick while he was fucking him, so his mind inevitably went there. Yu would always jolt violently, cover his mouth to hold in a scream, and come in Kanji’s hand in only a few seconds.

And, fuck, Kanji couldn’t catch it that time. The moment his mind showed him another image of Yu’s euphoric, orgasmic expression, he burst, coating his hand and most of his chest with what felt like a bucket of cum. Since he started doing this again, it was as if his body was creating cum properly for the first time since he came to Hell, so his loads were always massive. Made him wish he had whatever spell Yu had used to clean him up that day.

Whatever, cleanup could wait. For now, he wanted to just lay there and bask in the afterglow. His mind was still swimming with the images even if his refractory period was normally nowhere near fast enough for him to go at it again. He could sometimes get a second orgasm out of it if he was lucky, but after whatever magic had worn off during one of his second attempts, he’d decided it usually wasn’t worth it to try.

So he focused instead on trying to just imagine Yu. Not in the throes of passion or whatever, just… him. Smiling, laughing, or telling Kanji a funny story. Something told Kanji he had a lot of those, and Kanji would sit there and listen to them for hours if he could. His eyes stung, and what happened next was inevitable. It happened every time without fail, so he’d long since stopped trying to prevent it. A knot grew in his throat and tears leaked from the edges of his eyes. 

‘I miss you,’ Yu’s message said, and Kanji knew the feeling well.

It had been so long, and even with the apples, it was becoming harder and harder to hold on to the hope that this waiting would ever end. Knowing that Yu hadn’t forgotten him and knowing Yu was still fighting were all well and good, but it just couldn’t take the place of him actually being here. 

Kanji dropped his dry hand over his eyes and shook his head. Even after seventy years, he was still being selfish, but what was he supposed to do? Not miss him? Not want him here? Impossible.

He took a deep breath and blew it out heavily before wiping the tears off of his face. There was no point in crying. It wouldn’t get Yu back to him any quicker. He sat up, went to the bathroom, and took the best bath he could with the cheap ass water pump, yet another of the many ‘perks’ of living so far away from Lucifer’s palace. Want actual lights and running water? Gotta kiss the queen’s ass and beg her for one of the nicer houses.  
  
Kanji wasn’t about kissing asses. Well, not Lucifer’s ass anyway.

Once he was reasonably clean, he went back to his bed. He could tell during the cleaning session that he was still sensitive, so he probably had time to go again, but he just didn’t have it in him right now. So he laid back down, slid under the thin blankets, and tried to go to sleep.

* * *

Dragging himself out of bed the next morning was a chore. Always was on the mornings after one of his ‘sessions.’ He sat on his bed, legs hanging off the side as he rubbed the back of his neck and yawned. Things were noisy outside, with lots of raised voices and running about. That was never a good sign. Usually meant he was gonna have to fight some dumbass punks on the way to work who were trying to have a turf war over the damn slums. Why anyone would wanna fight over this shithole, Kanji had no idea, but he wasn’t about to let them wreck his shack. He still needed somewhere to sleep at the end of the day.

Hell meals consisted of mostly whatever serpents you could manage to catch and cook up. Thankfully, Kanji had nabbed a komodo dragon the other day. Most people didn’t want to go after them because, even though their venom couldn’t kill devils, it stung like a son-of-a-bitch. But their meat was super tasty, and if you removed the venom sacks, you could eat it without getting a stomach ache.

He opened one of the sealed glass containers he had to keep the meat in for preservation since he didn’t have an icebox. Without the ability to die from illnesses and whatnot, bacteria was a non-issue, so trying to keep an icebox around was an unnecessary hassle, especially since everyone in the slums wanted one of those. He didn’t want to make his shack a target.

He cooked up the Komodo dragon meat, ate it quickly, and chased it with a giant cup of water. The water tasted like shit like it always did, but it quenched his thirst, so that was enough. After straightening up his blonde hair as best he could, he took off out of the shack and toward the barracks. A little early, but he was expecting trouble.

Except trouble never came. There were people out on the streets, but none of them were fighting. They were just standing around and appeared to be chatting with each other. Now that was weird. Kanji hadn’t seen a sight like this even once since he’d been here. It reminded him of all of the housewives who would stand on the streets of Inaba and gossip about one thing or another.

Discomforted, he shoved his hands into the pockets of his shorts and started walking down the streets, trying to ignore everyone he passed. But he, naturally, picked up on some of it.

“Did you hear…?

“Yeah, I can’t believe…”

“She actually did it?”

“I didn’t think it was possible…”

The voices started tapering off as Kanji left the slums and made it to the barracks. Well, it wasn’t strictly true that he’d left the slums. The barracks were in an only _slightly_ less shitty part of the capital.

As soon as he went inside, he went straight to the armory to pick up his weapons, a sword, a war axe, and a club. He wore the sword and axe on a belt and the club on a harness attached to his back. He was partway through hooking the club’s harness when a door nearby opened and a bunch of his fellow guards filed in. 

But they were strangely… quiet. They were talking, of course, but one voice that usually boomed louder than all the others was missing. He turned around, and sure enough, Chie was not there. It wasn’t unheard of for guards to miss shifts due to an injury or some other hindrance, but Chie had never once missed a day. She took her job very seriously, probably due to her stint as a cop back on Earth. 

He was concerned enough to approach the group and ask, “Where the hell’s Chie?”

The entire group looked at him for only a second before they all started glancing back and forth at each other. They muttered a few things under their breaths before one of them stepped forward. Kanji knew him well. His name was Yosuke, and apparently, his crime was slapping a woman who had made fun of his murdered friend. God really was a petty S.O.B. But Yosuke and Chie were practically joined at the hip, so if anyone would know where she was, it would be him.

“You haven’t heard?” Yosuke asked dumbly.

“Obviously I haven’t,” Kanji said with an eye-roll, “so you wanna clue me in?” 

Yosuke’s brown-furred arms crossed and his red eyes flicked off to the side as if he was nervous. What the hell? Kanji hadn’t been all that harsh.

Yosuke wet his lips before answering, “She… um… She was redeemed.”

Kanji didn’t just freeze. His whole body locked up and he stared back at Yosuke with eyes so wide he could feel them already starting to dry out.

“Redeemed?” Kanji repeated lowly. 

“Yeah,” Yosuke said, sounding a little sad. “I mean, I’m happy for her, but it kinda sucks not having her around, you know?”

Kanji did know. He’d been knowing that feeling for seven decades. But for the first time in those seven decades, he felt an elation that made his lips curl into a smile and a laugh start forming in his throat. He caught it before it escaped and turned his back to keep Yosuke from seeing him grinning like a fucking moron.

Without another word, he left to go on his rounds, but with a greater skip to his step than he’d ever had before. And the whole day, that grin was practically glued to his face.

Yu did it. He fucking did it!

* * *

Hell was more peaceful than Kanji had ever seen it in the days that followed. Devils with lesser crimes who had always gotten their kicks by starting fights and drinking themselves into a stupor were now doing little more than chatting with their fellow devils and talking about what they were going to do once they were allowed to go before the Archangels. And it was wonderful. Well, as wonderful as things could be in Hell, anyway. More and more devils were getting called forth every day, and almost none were coming back. Kanji was happy for them, he really was. Even Yosuke had gotten his wish to see Chie again.

But another part of him was bitter. Angry even. He knew he shouldn’t be. He wasn’t the only devil in Hell, and there were plenty of devils whose crimes were lesser than his, ones who deserved to be redeemed before him. But on the night of the fifth day after Kanji learned of Chie’s redemption, Kanji was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, and trying to keep from crying in absolute frustration. 

_‘_ _I will finish my mission, and I will come for you as soon as I do.’_

Those words kept echoing in Kanji’s head over and over. The mission was complete. It had to be. There was no way so many devils would be getting redeemed otherwise. But Kanji was still here, waiting as he had been for so many years. Why? Why wasn’t he being called? 

He rolled onto his side and shook his head, internally berating himself for being such a brat. There were so many good people who were finally being taken to Heaven where they belonged, and here Kanji was lying here and feeling sorry for himself. He really was such a selfish, whiney jerk. Maybe that was why he wasn’t being called yet. 

He sighed and closed his eyes, trying to make himself go to sleep. It took a really long time, so when the next morning arrived, he’d managed to grab no more than a couple of hours of rest. His whole body felt like it was weighed down by anchors as he pulled himself up, and on the walk to the barracks, he tuned out the people on the streets. Their cheerful voices were an annoyance at best and a stab to his chest at worst. 

And it was so damn petty. Why was he being such a dick about this?

He didn’t know, but he couldn’t help it. So when he made it to the barracks, he didn’t even so much as greet anyone. He just went straight to the armory, grabbed his weapons, and sat down on one of the uncomfortable benches to wait for his shift to start. His hands sat on his knees clenched into fists as he stared at the floor and tried to calm down. 

This was ridiculous. He’d just waited seventy fucking years, but now he was losing his mind after less than a week?

Of course, the chatter from the streets continued in the barracks, too, so Kanji was subjected to his fellow guards sharing the latest gossip about the redemptions.

“I heard you don’t even go before God anymore,” one of the male guards said. “There’s just these two Archangels at the podium while God stays in Heaven.”

“Yeah, I heard that, too,” his friend answered. “One guy came back and said there was this black-haired angel who delivered the judgment and a silver-haired one who told him what he needed to do before he could be fully redeemed.”

Kanji’s head snapped up and he spun around, the two guards noticed his sudden movement and turned to him. 

“Did you say silver hair?” Kanji asked, surprised by how frantic he sounded. 

Both of the guards looked at him like he had two heads, but one of them still answered, “Yeah. A real pretty boy, apparently. Why?”

Kanji didn’t answer. In fact, the only thing he dared do was look away. He didn’t want to risk saying something he’d regret in a minute. His shift didn’t technically start for another couple of minutes, but he left anyway, ignoring the guards as they called after him asking what was wrong. His attempt at calming down had been thwarted and outright reversed before he’d even had a chance to really try. 

Yu was in charge of it, partially, at least. And yet Kanji still hadn’t been called. Why? For fuck’s sake, why? Possibilities were coming to him, but none of them were even remotely good.

Maybe the apples and the messages were only something Yu had felt obligated to send him since he’d promised. Maybe after seventy years, he’d found an angel whose soul was also ‘compatible’ with his and had decided the angel was the better option. Kanji couldn’t blame him. He knew himself well, and he knew he was a goddamn mess. Why _wouldn’t_ Yu decide an angel was the better choice?

Those thoughts plagued his mind the entire day, so it was a damn good thing that Hell was mostly peaceful right now. Normally, Kanji showed restraint when breaking up fights or dragging devils back to their cells, but right now he wasn’t sure how he’d react if someone pissed him off. Then again, a lack of distractions just gave his mind more time to wander and it always wandered right back to Yu, falling head over heels for some angel. Hell, maybe it was the black-haired one helping him with the redemptions.

That possibility stuck with him when his shift ended, it stuck with him while he turned in his weapons, on the way home, while he cooked dinner, and even as he stood in the doorway of his room, staring at the apple sitting on the end table. This was the first time in all these decades that seeing it didn’t immediately make his chest flutter. 

He didn’t rush to the apple, he walked slowly. He didn’t snatch it like a lifeline, he reached for it shakily like it might burn him. He didn’t rush to hold it up to a torch so he could read it. He took a second to close his eyes, take a breath, and prepare himself for yet another ‘I remember’ or ‘Hi, beautiful.’

Then he opened his eyes and looked down at the apple.

_Soon, I promise._

Kanji rubbed his eyes, blinked several times, and rubbed them again. He had to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. Did the apple really just say…?

He looked again, and the message hadn’t changed. It was written in the same swirly lettering that all of Yu’s messages had come in, so it was definitely him. And that realization hit Kanji with a mixture of knee-weakening relief and a desire to slam his head into the nearest wall over and over.

Stupid. You’re such a fucking idiot. Didn’t he send you a message _just_ last week saying he misses you? Why the hell would he do that if he’d moved on to someone else? Christ. Seven decades in Hell and you’re still the same dumbass you were when you beat up those damn bikers.

He held the apple up and pressed it against his forehead. “I’m sorry.”

Yu wasn’t here to hear it, but he needed to say it anyway. Doubting him like that when he’d kept all of his promises so far… Kanji was the worst. He brought the apple down to his chest and carried it to the bed with him. This would be the first time he didn’t eat one of them, but he just didn’t have it in him to do anything tonight. 

Besides, waking up to this message first thing in the morning might make it easier to get out of bed.

* * *

The letter came at the last moment Kanji expected it. 

It floated down from Hell’s sky in the middle of one of his shifts, three weeks after Yu sent him the message telling him they’d see each other soon. He’d gotten three other messages since, all promising the same thing but worded slightly differently, so he hadn’t fallen into another of his stupid worrying fits.

He knew what the letter meant. Every devil called for a redemption hearing received their summons the same way.

But now that he had this letter, something else was coming over him. A kind of nervousness that he hadn’t felt before. He was both ecstatic to know he’d be going before Yu and the other angel tomorrow and terrified of doing so. It had been so long since he’d seen him. It wasn’t that Kanji had changed much or anything, so he wasn’t worried Yu wouldn’t like him anymore, but…

When you jack off to someone for seventy years, the prospect of actually getting to see them is a tad nerve-wracking. Would Yu be able to tell that Kanji had been having such dirty thoughts about him through the years? Although, with how perverted Yu was, maybe he wouldn’t mind that too much.

Kanji grinned at the thought and his nerves eased a little. He was probably getting nervous over nothing, as usual. He folded the letter and slid it into his pocket before turning to immediately head back home. If he was going before the Archangels tomorrow, there was no need to finish his shift and he needed to make sure he was in good shape. Despite how uncharacteristically peaceful Hell had been lately, there was always a chance he would get caught in a brawl, and he couldn’t have that.

He wanted to get his hands on Yu as quickly as possible, so he wasn’t about to let something as trivial as injuries get in the way of that.

When he made it back to his shack, he looked around. Over the years, he’d personalized it with some of the random items that would appear in Hell. Damaged action figures, old paintings, tattered posters, and many other trinkets that he’d tried to use to make the place feel more like home. It must have worked because as he looked around, he found himself feeling a little bit sad. What was going to happen to his shack once he was gone, he wondered.

He tried not to think about it too much as he continued on with his day. He cooked dinner, he took a bath, scrubbing his fur and tail as best he could, he filed down his claws, and he polished his horns. If he was gonna see Yu tomorrow, he was gonna look his best, dammit.

And when he finally managed to fall asleep (he was so damn excited his brain didn’t want to settle), he slept better than he had in years and felt like he got a full night even though he only managed a few hours.

After climbing out of bed, he did what he could with an old brush, straightening up his blonde hair and smoothing out his fur. Would he even have fur after today? Or would he immediately get turned into an angel? The thought pricked at Kanji a little. It wasn’t that he didn’t like how angels looked or whatever, but he’d gotten so used to looking like this. A sudden change like that would be weird. 

The time arrived, and with one last melancholy look around his shack, he left, not bothering to close or lock the door since he wouldn’t be back. He came across several other devils on the way, some nodding at him or wishing him luck. Seems news of his upcoming hearing had spread through Hell’s many grapevines. He approached the entrance to Limbo for the first time since that incredible day, and he walked down the hallway.

The smell was the first thing to hit him. Flowers, grass, leaves, Earth, such a stark contrast to the ever-present smell of sulfur, booze, and blood that permeated all parts of Hell. He preemptively held his hand up to cover his eyes since he knew how bright it was, and when he stepped inside, he almost immediately saw them. 

There was the stage, the podium, and standing behind the podium were two angels. Kanji’s legs stopped moving. Fuck… there he was. He hadn’t seen Kanji yet because he was looking at the black-haired angel, a female, maybe? Kanji didn’t look at the other angel long enough to figure it out. His eyes locked on Yu, watching every little movement of his body and drinking it in as his heart fucking jackhammered his chest. And he had to somehow contain himself long enough to get through the entire hearing. This was gonna be even harder than the seventy-year wait.

He took a deep breath, swallowed back a gallon of spit, and forced his legs to move. Keep it together, Tatsumi. You’ve waited this long, you can wait a tiny bit longer.

He was a couple of yards away from the platform he was meant to stand on when Yu finally noticed him and when their eyes met, Kanji had to actively stop his legs from locking up again. Shit, shit, shit. Calm down. Calm the hell down and keep walking. The sooner you get this hearing over with, the sooner you can see him properly.

Kanji knew the procedure already, so he stepped up on the platform and knelt down to one knee, bowing his head to Yu and the other angel. That made calming himself a little easier since he wasn’t able to stare into those blue eyes. 

“Kanji Tatsumi,” came a female voice. So she _was_ a woman. 

“Ma’am,” Kanji answered respectfully. 

“According to our records, your sin was the physical assault of a trouble-making group of bikers,” she said flatly. “Is that right?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ve no other sins to speak of?” she asked, not accusatory in the slightest.

Kanji raised his head to look at her and shrugged. “Skipped class a lot. Does that count?”

The angel’s lips curled into a smile and she shook her head, “If that were a sin, Heaven would be empty, I think.”

She stole a glance at Yu, and Kanji couldn’t stop his eyes from following her gaze. Shit. Big mistake. She and Yu were whispering something to each other, but Kanji didn’t even try to hear it. This close, Kanji could see every tiny detail of Yu’s face from his eyelashes to a light mole next to his chin. Kanji never thought he could be so excited by a freaking mole, but he suddenly wanted to kiss it… and every other inch of Yu’s face. 

Then both angels turned back to him and he was forced to shut those thoughts down. Well, as much as he could anyway. The female angel looked down at the podium and Kanji saw her flip through a few pieces of paper.

“You’ve got quite a record with Hell’s guard,” she said, almost sounding impressed. “According to your fellow guards, every time you were sent to recapture or apprehend a rule-breaker, you brought them in with as few injuries as possible.”

Kanji raised an eyebrow. “You’ve talked to the other guards?”

She grinned again. “In a sense. I believe you know Chie and Yosuke. They’re _our_ guards now, but they went to bat for you rather extensively.”

Went… to bat for him? 

“Seriously?”

“Yes,” she replied. “They said you weren’t very sociable but they had nothing but praise for how you handled your duties.”

That had Kanji’s cheeks burning. He had no idea Chie and Yosuke were paying that much attention to how he worked. Then again, Kanji had been pretty one-track-minded over the years, so even if they’d been super obvious about it he probably wouldn’t have noticed.

“Easy there, Naoto,” came Yu’s voice, and it very nearly made Kanji lose his balance. “His head’s big enough.”

Yu followed that up with a wink, and it made Kanji burn. Just as cheeky as he was the last time they saw each other, and Kanji was happier for it. 

“Yes, I suppose you’re right,” Naoto responded before looking back at Kanji. “With your sin being so minor, your redemption was already decided before you even came here. The true purpose of this hearing is to offer you a position in Heaven’s guard, if you want it, of course.”

Kanji was a little taken aback by the offer, but he saw no reason to refuse it. He hadn’t considered much past being reunited with Yu, but if he was going to go to Heaven, he’d just as well make himself useful. Especially if he and Yu were actually going to be together. Wouldn’t do for an Archangel’s boyfriend to look like a lazy bum.

“Yeah,” Kanji answered confidently. “Count me in.”

Naoto’s smile widened and she picked up the papers off of the podium. “Very well, then. You’ll report to Guard Captain Chisato the day after tomorrow.”

With a deep exhale, she then turned to Yu and said, “Now, I think you’d best take him home before he comes out of his skin. Honestly, I don’t see why you had to drag me out here when the meeting was nothing but a formality, anyway.”

Kanji’s mouth hung open. Wait… what did she just say?

“Sorry, Naoto,” Yu answered nervously, scratching the back of his head. “Just wanted to keep up appearances, you know?”

She chuckled and shook her head. “Well, at least I know one or two of my lessons stuck.”

Then she walked away, giving Yu’s shoulder a squeeze as she went. Once she was at the edge of the podium, her wings flapped three times and she flew up, disappearing from Kanji’s sight in seconds. Damn. Was he gonna be able to learn how to fly like that? If so, maybe it would be worth it to lose all of his devil parts. 

But then Yu moved and every other thought vanished from his purview. Kanji met his eyes as he was stepping off of the stage, and the moment his feet touched grass, Kanji shot up. In two quick strides, he stepped off the platform and got close enough to snatch Yu’s wrist. Their bodies crashed together and while Kanji’s plan had been to hug him first, he went right in for a kiss. 

He didn’t even try to be decent about it. He licked Yu’s lips, nipped at them, forced his tongue into his mouth, and basically did everything he could to leave Yu as breathless as possible. And Yu was doing the same right back, meeting Kanji’s every movement with one of his own, and for the first time in seven decades, Kanji’s body felt like it was truly alive again. No more fantasies. The real thing. Right here. 

When they were finally able to pry themselves away from each other’s lips, Kanji held Yu so tightly against him that he feared he might have been making it hard for Yu to breathe. But Yu said nothing about it and gripped Kanji back just as tightly. Kanji tucked his face into Yu’s neck and breathed in deeply. Still flowers and Earth, but they were also still in Limbo, so he’d have to do this again later to see if this was truly his scent or not.  
  
Later. Fuck, he liked the sound of that.

“Kanji…” Yu said softly, and the relief in his voice made Kanji’s eyes sting with mist. 

Kanji turned his head to give Yu a long kiss on the side of his neck before whispering, “I missed you.”

Yu sucked in a breath and his grip tightened a little more. “I know… I’m sorry.”

Kanji’s attention was piqued, and not in a good way. Something about the way Yu just spoke those words…

“You’re sorry?” Kanji asked. “Why?”

Yu shook his head and gently separated himself from Kanji, but he moved back no further than half a step, which was a relief. He wasn’t ready to be very far away from Yu just yet.

“Can we… talk back at my house?” Yu asked, sounding way more distressed than Kanji was expecting him to sound. What was going through his head?

“Yeah,” Kanji replied. “Sure. Whatever you want.”

That seemed to make Yu feel a little bit better, but he was still really tense as he wrapped an arm around Kanji’s waist and pulled him close again. Then his perfect wings did the same thing Kanji had just seen Naoto’s do. Oh shit. Was Yu about to-

“Waah!”

Kanji scrambled to wrap both arms around Yu’s torso as they both shot off into the air, propelled by Yu’s powerful wings. Once they were so far into the air that Kanji couldn’t see the ground anymore, he heard a small chuckle coming from Yu. He looked at him to see a cocky but still slightly guarded smile.

“Ever heard of giving a guy a warning?” Kanji playfully jabbed. “‘Bout had a damn heart attack.”

“Considering devil hearts usually don’t beat, that would be quite the feat,” Yu responded, the playful tone cut through by the edge of discomfort still present in his features.

Kanji really didn’t like how he was acting. He’d been expecting a lot more excitement and a lot less of… whatever this was. But he kept those thoughts to himself, mostly because, after a few seconds, they came across what Kanji could only assume was the gate to Heaven. It was just as tall, gold, and gaudy as Kanji had expected it to be. When they were just above the golden path leading to it, Yu flapped his wings a couple of times and they slowly descended. 

When their feet touched the ground, Yu separated himself from Kanji again, but he still kept close as he led Kanji up to the gate and toward the two guards standing to either side of it. Their robes were similar to Yu’s, except they each had gold chest plates, as well. They also held gold spears and wore gold helmets on their heads. So much white and gold. Was this what Kanji had to look forward to? 

The guards both saluted as he and Yu approached, and Kanji was prepared to ignore them entirely until he got a look at their faces.

His eyes went wider. “Chie? Yosuke?”

He hadn’t recognized them right away because they looked so different. No horns, no fur, no tails, and white wings sticking out of their backs. Damn, Chie looked incredible.

“Heya!” Chie answered with a wave. “I was wondering when you were gonna bring him here, Yu.”

Yu grinned. “Well, I couldn’t make it seem like I was giving him special treatment, could I?”

Kanji glanced at Yu after he said that and suddenly felt even dumber about his silly fit of anxiety he’d had a few weeks ago. Of course. After overthrowing God, Yu would naturally have to make sure it didn’t seem like he was abusing his position in order to bring his boyfriend up from Hell. This was why Yu was the archangel and Kanji was just gonna be a guard.

“I’d say he’s gonna be getting plenty of ‘special treatment’ here soon,” Yosuke joked, and Kanji had to cover his eyes with his hand. Yosuke never could keep his mouth shut.

Yu didn’t offer any sort of response to that and just gave Chie and Yosuke a generic farewell before motioning for Kanji to follow. But he did a really bad job hiding the pained expression that came over his face in those couple of seconds. Kanji said a quick goodbye to his friends, as well, and chased after Yu, who had made it several steps ahead of him. 

And, fucking Christ, there was so much white in Heaven. White clouds, white houses, white clothes, white wings on every angel they passed. Apart from the golden streets, it just seemed to be nothing but white. Yeesh. Hell was bleak, dark, and dirty, but at least it had more than two colors. He wasn’t gonna complain too much, though. Anywhere he could be with Yu was good enough for him, even if it _was_ trying to blind him. 

He followed Yu down the streets, passing angel after angel as they went. Many of them greeted Yu with a nod, wave, or friendly smile, and he gave them the same back. But Kanji didn’t miss how almost as many sneered at him, glared, or even spit. When one angel spit a little bit too close to Yu, Kanji moved to confront the guy on instinct, but Yu held out an arm to stop him. Kanji looked at Yu and he shook his head before motioning for Kanji to keep following. 

When the angry angel was far enough away, Yu said, “Don’t bother. God’s loyalists aren’t going to forgive me anytime soon, and fighting with them won’t change that.”

Loyalists. Kanji hadn’t even thought about that, but it made sense. A guy in charge that long, suddenly deposed by an angel so young by comparison… Definitely gonna be some bad blood for a long time.

They walked for only a few more minutes before Yu stopped in front of one of the many houses, he motioned toward it and when Kanji looked, it was a lot smaller than he was expecting. He figured an Archangel would have a mansion or something. They walked down the golden walkway that led to the front door, and Yu opened it to let them both in. 

The inside was just as underwhelming as the outside, looking like a typical house that you’d see on Earth. Not that it mattered much. Kanji probably would have felt awkward, a devil in a fancy house. Wait… devil. He glanced down at his body and saw that it still looked the same. He didn’t know whether to be relieved or confused. Yu looked back at him when he noticed Kanji hadn’t moved from his spot and cocked his head to the side.

“Something wrong?” Yu asked.

Kanji cleared his throat and gave Yu a smile. “Nah. I’m good. Just kinda wondering… How does the whole transformation thing work? Chie and Yosuke looked different, but I’m still the same.”

Yu looked him up and down, and while that might have made him blush all those decades ago, now it just did wonders for his pride. 

“It’s a process,” Yu answered, taking a step closer, “dependent mostly on your assimilation. While Heaven still feels foreign to you, you’re going to continue looking foreign yourself.”

That made sense. Chie and Yosuke had both been there for a while and they were clearly settled in what with them guarding the freaking gate to Heaven. 

“If I’m being perfectly honest, part of me doesn’t want you to get too assimilated,” Yu said suggestively, and it had Kanji smirking.

“Oh yeah?” Kanji replied smugly. “What’s doin’ it for ya? The horns? Fur? Tail?”

Yu took one more step closer, reaching a hand out to stroke the fur on Kanji’s arm. “Aren’t we forgetting the fangs and claws?”

Kanji snatched Yu’s wrist and pulled him into his arms again, hovering his lips a mere few inches from Yu’s. He made a show of baring his fangs, and Yu’s breath visibly hitched. 

“A masochistic angel,” Kanji teased. “Ain’t that a sin or something?”

Yu chuckled and leaned in closer. “Not anymore.”

He flicked his tongue against one of Kanji’s fangs, and… yep, _that_ was going straight to his cock. He closed the remaining inch and roughly kissed Yu again, not even trying to hold back his fangs this time. One of them inevitably nicked Yu’s lip, and he responded with a wet, desperate moan.

All things considered, Kanji decided he’d done a pretty good job keeping his hands to himself, but they were behind closed doors now. So all bets were fucking _off_. He raised his hands to the top of Yu’s robes and started to part them. He needed to see him, touch him. He’d been waiting too damn long.

But then two warm hands came up to grasp his wrists, and before Kanji could even get so much as a fingertip on Yu’s chest, his hands were gently tugged away. It felt like a bucket of cold water was suddenly poured on Kanji and he clenched his fists. Shit. Did he get too ahead of himself? Was Yu still not ready? 

“Too soon?” Kanji asked, trying not to sound disappointed.

“No,” Yu answered immediately. “Long overdue, more like, but you need to hear the whole truth first, the one I refused to tell you all those years ago. Because that truth might very well revoke any consent you were about to give me.”

Revoke… his consent? What?

“What are you talking about, Yu?” Kanji asked. “I’ve been waiting for you for seventy freaking years.”

“I know,” he answered pitifully. “And it was wrong of me to ask you to do that without telling you the truth first. If, once you hear that truth, you decide you cannot forgive me for keeping it from you, I won’t blame you.”

Kanji had been ready to tear Yu’s clothes off a minute ago, but now he was so frozen with fear and anxiety that sex was the absolute last thing on his mind. At the forefront of his thoughts was some words Yu spoke to him all those years ago, words quickly forgotten once Yu had gotten his hands on him. 

“You said you didn’t want to tarnish my image of you,” Kanji said carefully. “Is this what you were talking about?”

Yu nodded. “Come sit. This is going to take a moment.”


	3. Chapter 3

They were both sitting on Yu’s couch, and Yu had yet to actually say anything. 

After the first few moments of silence, Kanji had tried to scoot closer to Yu, but Yu didn’t let him and actually scooted away. So here they were, sitting on damn near opposite sides. And Kanji hated it. He was finally here, within arm’s reach, but Yu felt further away now than he had when Kanji was still in Hell.

“Yu,” Kanji pleaded. “Say something. If you’re gonna keep me away, you gotta at least tell me why.”

Yu’s eyes squeezed closed and he leaned forward, elbows on his knees and hands wound together. Kanji watched him take a breath, blow it out, and then his eyes opened again. He stared at the coffee table in front of him, but Kanji could still see the petrified fear in his eyes. Jesus fucking Christ, just what was Yu about to tell him?

“Lust was not just a sin up here, Kanji,” Yu began. “It was among the most harshly-punished. Because God might have seen greed as Lucifer’s greatest sin, but lust came in a close second. For Lucifer was not just God’s second-in-command. She was his lover. He adored her, gave her everything she could ever want. But it was never enough. She always wanted more, more, more, and when he finally stopped indulging her, she turned on him.”

Kanji’s eyes bugged. Lover? Holy shit.

“From that day on,” Yu went on, “God became the bitter, authoritarian leader we came to know. He made the rules so unbearably strict because, in his eyes, it was the only way to prevent another Lucifer. Nevermind that he was making his own creations miserable and breaking his own laws by refusing to let anyone be redeemed.”

Yu spoke the words with more sadness than anger, and Kanji could see why. It was easy to think of God as just another evil tyrant. It was harder to see him as a flawed being who reacted to a betrayal the way any flawed being would. 

“And so God planted the apple tree in Limbo, a representation of greed and lust, both of Lucifer’s greatest sins.”

Now that really got Kanji’s attention, and he quickly asked, “So that tree _was_ a trap set by God?”

“Yes,” Yu answered flatly, already sounding exhausted even though the conversation had only just started. “But it was meant to tempt angels, not devils. Which is why the apples would not have the same effect on you as they would have over any angels who ingested them.”

Effect? He definitely remembered the apples having an effect.

“They made me able to feel again,” Kanji told him. “That’s not what they do to you?”

Yu shook his head. “Any angel who took even a single bite of one of those apples would immediately be sent into a sexual frenzy, completely unable to resist either copulating or masturbating, whichever was the easiest at the time. God saw it as a mini Trial of Temptation. If you were greedy enough to take one of the forbidden apples, you would be punished with the curse of lust and either be demoted or lose your place in Heaven.”

Sexual frenzy. Despite the rest of that explanation being very important, Kanji couldn’t help focusing on those two words a little bit. Yu, laid out on a bed and desperately begging for him, had been one of Kanji’s most recurring fantasies. But he made himself squash those thoughts quickly enough because Yu obviously needed him to take this seriously.

“So that’s where my plan started,” Yu said, sounding pained. “I decided to take advantage of that trap and use it to remove any angels who were blocking my path toward overthrowing God.”

Before Kanji could even fully register those words, Yu stood up, arms wrapped around himself as he walked across the room to stand next to the window. Even from this position, where most of his face was hidden, Kanji could see how distressed he was. 

“Yu?” Kanji said hesitantly. “What-”

“Do you know about angels’ special abilities?” Yu asked. “On top of our typical angel abilities, we are granted one ability unique to us that no other angel can use. Chie wound up with colossal strength. Yosuke is able to fly far faster than any other angel in Heaven. And mine… thought to be the most useless ability in all of Heaven… the power of seduction.”

That last word hit Kanji harder than a single blow he’d ever been delt in his entire sentient existence, and his hands clenched into fists so tight that his claws began cutting into them despite how they’d been filed. He, too, suddenly couldn’t sit anymore and shot to his feet, looking up at Yu like he was seeing a different person. Was it... ? No. This couldn’t be…

“So you… seduced me?” Kanji choked out, his chest suddenly feeling like it was being crushed. “You’ve had me under a spell for all of these years?”

“No,” Yu answered right away, and when Kanji met his eyes, he saw raw, unfiltered desperation. He was facing Kanji full-on now, and his eyes were shimmering with tears that hadn’t yet fallen. “I never used it on you. Not once. I swear to you.”

Kanji wanted to be relieved, he really did, but he remembered thinking it was weird how well he and Yu had clicked. He’d been happy to believe it was due to ‘compatibility or whatever before, but now…

“Kanji,” Yu said gently, apprehensively, and while Kanji was still wary, he matched Yu’s gaze again. “Lying was forbidden, remember? I couldn’t have lied to you even if I’d wanted to, and I told you that you were the first person in a long time who truly wanted me. No one who was under my spell could truly want me.”

That… made sense. And it wasn’t like seducing Kanji would have even remotely helped with Yu’s plan. But still… knowing Yu had such a power and kept it from him…

“And that… is where my true sin lies.”

Kanji’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

Yu shifted his feet uncomfortably and Kanji could see his grip on himself tighten. “I removed the angels in my path by luring them to the tree in Limbo, seducing them, and driving them to commit the sin of lust, whether by my hand or their own.”

Devils were normally hot-blooded, but Kanji’s had never run so cold. He’d told himself all those years ago that there was no way, but Yu really did…?

“Are you telling me that you… made all those angels come while they were under your spell?”

Kanji spoke all of those words with desperation, practically begging for Yu to tell him no, that wasn’t what he meant. But Yu’s face only grew more pained, and Kanji stumbled as his legs seemed to lose all of their strength. He caught himself on a nearby wall and stared at Yu again, trying like hell to reconcile what he’d just heard with who he’d always believed Yu was. It just didn’t seem possible. Yu had been so gentle with him, so eager to please and make sure Kanji was okay the entire time they were together. So how could Yu have done something like that to so many angels?

“I focused on God’s most loyal and high-ranking supporters,” Yu continued. “And since God was still so wrapped up in preventing another Lucifer, he simply assumed that those followers were beginning to see themselves as untouchable, just as she had. He stripped them of their positions, making room for others to take their place.”

Others. By that he obviously meant himself. So that was it? Yu was doing these things so he could rise in the ranks and strip God of loyal supporters? That was… Kanji didn’t know. It was terrible to think of Yu committing what was, for all intents and purposes, sexual assault, but something as insane as toppling God. Could Yu really have accomplished that without getting his hands at least a little bit dirty? Especially since God was playing dirty to start with?

“Because I’d lured these angels to the tree, it was an easy enough thing to pluck one of the apples and dispose of it in order to make it seem like they’d eaten one of them,” Yu strained to say. “Deciding to start sending them to you instead was a spur-of-the-moment decision, but it was convenient since it served a dual purpose.”

Getting rid of the evidence and being able to send messages to Kanji. Smart. Despite how discomforted he was by the idea, Kanji had to admit that it was a decent plan. Using God’s own trap and authoritarian rules to outsmart him wasn’t something Kanji would ever have been able to come up with.

“And no one suspected anything weird was going on?” Kanji asked. “Seems like someone would notice that God’s loyal followers were dropping like flies.”

“Someone certainly noticed,” Yu answered with a hint of fondness in his voice. “Naoto. Evidently, she was a detective back on Earth and a very good one. She watched me for weeks, and confronted me in Limbo while I was on my way to set the trap for my next target.”

Kanji was a little less put off now, so he was able to move away from the wall, “That must have freaked you the hell out.”

Yu’s eyes went wider as he nodded. “I thought I was finished for sure, but she just asked me what I was trying to accomplish by doing this. And when I told her... she actually offered to help. You see, deposing so many of God’s loyal followers had made room for many other angels to rise in the ranks, as well, angels who were chaffing just as much under God’s rule. And those angels had formed a sort of resistance group, with Naoto as their leader. Apparently, they’d been trying to figure out who I was for some time so that they could recruit me.”

A resistance group, huh? He hadn’t seen much of Naoto, but after his first impression of her, Kanji wasn’t remotely surprised to hear that.

Yu’s eyes fell, and Kanji saw his hands clench into fists. “She had a plan, one that didn’t involve… well… what I’d been doing, so I accepted. Following her plan while also abandoning my own likely tacked on a couple of extra decades, but I…”

Yu’s head dipped lower, and he went completely silent. Kanji couldn’t even hear his breathing. And that was how he stayed for several seconds longer than your typical pause in a conversation. Then he turned his back on Kanji again and brought a hand up to his face like he was wiping away tears.

“That’s it,” Yu said, almost monotone. “That’s the whole truth. So now the decision is yours, Kanji. Whatever you choose, I will accept it.”

Then he fell silent again, and this time Kanji knew he was going to stay that way, at least until Kanji said something. But he didn’t actually know what to say. His legs instinctively carried him back toward the couch as his brain started swimming. He sat, leaned forward, wound his hands together, and stared at the empty coffee table in front of him.

What Yu had done… Kanji couldn’t escape from how much it made his skin crawl. He’d heard stories of guys drugging chick’s drinks at parties and taking advantage of them while they were drugged, and what Yu had been doing to those angels felt way too similar to that. But there was one difference, a difference that was keeping Kanji from bolting to the door and slamming it closed forever.

Yu wasn’t saying it, and he was obviously trying very hard not to let it show, but Kanji knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Yu hated what he’d done. Even that moment, all those years ago, when Yu had offered to free Kanji of the ropes, was suddenly appearing in a new light. He wasn’t some perverted psycho who got off on taking people against their will, and the fact that he jumped into a new plan the moment it was presented to him…

No. Kanji couldn’t just walk away. He couldn’t make excuses for what Yu did, but he could damn well not abandon him over it. Especially since it ultimately led to Heaven being freed from a tyrant and devils finally being given an actual chance at redemption.

He stood up, took the few steps he needed to take to reach Yu, and slid his arms around Yu’s waist. Yu simultaneously jolted and gasped when Kanji pulled him closer, back to chest, and nuzzled their heads together. Yu’s arms stayed frozen where they are while the rest of his body trembled like a toddler hiding under his bed.

“Kanji?” he whispered hesitantly.

He gave Yu’s neck another long, slow kiss. “I’m not gonna pretend what you did doesn’t bother me, but I’ve been in Hell for a long time. I’ve seen the worst of the worst, and I know for a fact that ain’t you. And who said redemption is only for devils, anyway?”

Yu let out what sounded like a relieved sigh mixed with a sob, but he still didn’t move. Kanji didn’t know if it was from shock or lingering hesitation to accept that Kanji was choosing him, but either way, Kanji wasn’t going to allow it. He took Yu’s hips and gently made him turn around, and when he found Yu’s head still ducked down, he grasped his chin. Yu momentarily fought it, but Kanji overcame his protests quickly enough and made him raise his head. Just as Kanji had suspected, Yu’s eyes were puffy and red and his cheeks soaked with tears he’d been trying to hide.

“So you got anything else?” Kanji asked with a playful grin. “Because you’re gonna have to try harder than that if you wanna get rid of me.”

Against all odds, Yu choked out a laugh, and when Kanji raised a hand to try and wipe the tears from his face, Yu lunged forward to throw his arms around Kanji’s torso. Kanji stumbled for half a second and grunted when the air was suddenly knocked from his lungs.

Yu slid his hands up to hook onto Kanji’s shoulders and mumbled, “Thank you.”

The sincerity in those words had Kanji smiling from ear to ear, and he clasped his arms just as tightly around Yu.  
  
With another nuzzle, Kanji joked, “Well, don’t thank me too much. I’m not exactly without ulterior motive. I’ve been waiting a _really_ long time.”

Yu laughed again, with less strain this time, and answered, “We both have. And if you’re okay with it, I’d just as soon not wait a moment longer.”

Kanji swallowed. Well, shit. He really had just been messing around. He hadn’t expected Yu to want to jump into the sack right after such a heated conversation.

But if he _did_ want to, Kanji sure as hell wasn’t gonna say no.

“Just one thing, though,” Yu said, sounding a little nervous.

Kanji glanced at his face and saw some very red cheeks. Too damn cute.

“All right,” Kanji answered. “What’s up?”

Those cheeks went redder and Yu averted his eyes. “I… would really like for you to be on top.”

Oh. Fuck. Yes. How did Yu just manage to say the one thing Kanji was absolutely dying to hear? Kanji exhaled a breath and dropped his forehead onto Yu’s shoulder.

He felt a hand stroke the back of his head before Yu asked, “Is that okay?”

“More than okay,” Kanji replied in a husky voice he hadn’t even been trying to use. “So show me where the bed is.”

Kanji raised his head in time to see Yu motioning with his past Kanji and in the direction of the front door. With a peek over his shoulder, Kanji saw a doorway and an open door past the couch. Just barely visible inside the room was the corner of a bed. Welp, that was all he needed.

He dropped his hands down, about to scoop Yu right up off the floor when he was suddenly halted in his tracks. Hang on… didn’t he just have wings five seconds ago?

“Um… Yu…?” Kanji questioned. “What happened to your wings?”

“I figured they’d get in the way, so…”

Kanji gave him a confused look. So angels could just put their wings away like they were hanging up a coat? Well, it was the least crazy thing Kanji had heard in a while, so whatever. This would certainly make it easier to pick Yu up… which was exactly what he did.

“Kanji!” Yu scolded, but Kanji just smirked at him and headed straight for the bedroom.

He kicked the door closed and half threw Yu onto the bed before going straight for his shorts. He had them off and kicked across the room in a mere fraction of a second, and that was when he noticed he was already hard. Damn. He hadn’t even really done anything to Yu yet.

He glanced up to find Yu sitting up in the bed and staring holes into him, his eyes alive with a mixture of nervousness and excitement. It was a good thing Yu had asked him to top because after seeing that look, there was no way Kanji would have been able to take the submissive role this time. Every single fantasy that he’d gotten off to these past seventy years was shooting to the forefront of his mind, and he was quickly finding that the most difficult part was going to be deciding where he was gonna start. He just wanted so damn much.

“Kanji?” came Yu’s shaky voice, and it snapped Kanji right out of his thoughts.

He looked even more nervous now, like he was worried he’d done something wrong. Well, that wasn’t gonna fly. Kanji stepped forward and climbed onto the bed before pressing a hand into the center of Yu’s chest. Yu allowed himself to be pushed down onto his back, and Kanji hovered over him with a smile on his face.

“Sorry,” Kanji said softly. “Just… been thinking about this for a long time.”

Yu smiled back suggestively. “Yes. I know.”

Kanji raised an eyebrow. “You know?”

Both of Yu’s hands came up to stroke the fur on Kanji’s arms, “Well, perhaps I’m being presumptuous, but you knew what the apples did to devils, so obviously you’d been eating them. So unless there was someone _else_ in your thoughts while you were pleasuring yourself…”

He knew Yu was only joking, but the very idea still left a bit of a bad taste in his mouth. So he got rid of it by leaning down to capture Yu’s lips in another rough, tongue-filled kiss.

Upon breaking away, Kanji half-growled, “You know there wasn’t.”

Yu chuckled warmly before bringing his mouth to Kanji’s ear and dragging that silver tongue across the lobe. With a seductive whisper, Yu said, “Then show me what you’ve been thinking about, Kanji.”

His entire body erupted in goosebumps as Kanji stared down at Yu, whose nervousness had been completely replaced with a smug grin. Oh, Kanji was absolutely gonna wipe that off of his face. Because now he knew what he was gonna do. If Yu wanted to play games, Kanji had the perfect one for him.

He turned his head to breathe into Yu’s ear, “You asked for it.”

Then he slid his hands right to Yu’s chest, not yet parting his robes and instead rubbing right where he thought Yu’s nipples might be. And he must have been correct since Yu sucked in a breath and his legs jolted. It took no more than a couple of seconds for Kanji to feel both of those nipples protrude through the very thin robes, and he immediately took advantage. He started with gentle pinches, and it was a damn good thing Kanji had gotten himself off so many times over the years, because the soft moan Yu let out made his cock throb.

He bit his lip and channeled the arousal into his touches, turning the pinches into rolls and eventually flicks. And Yu, it took absolutely no time at all for him to start letting Kanji know how frustrated this was making him. Between the wanton grunts and the desperate moans, it couldn’t have been more obvious.

“Kanji, wh- aaaah,” he groaned, cut off when Kanji started moving his fingers over Yu’s nipples as if he was tickling his foot.

Kanji didn’t know where he’d gotten this sadistic streak, but he didn’t care. Hearing Yu call his name in such a desperate voice was like flames shot into his veins.

He didn’t stop his fingers for even a moment as he said, “What? You said to show you what I’ve been thinking about.”

Kanji pinched at his nipples again, harder this time, and Yu cried out before struggling to say, “Yes, but I… Mmnnn!”

He cut off his own word by closing the back of one of his hands over his mouth, and Kanji smiled wickedly. Trying to muffle himself, just like Kanji had always imagined he would, but he decided against pulling that hand away. Yu wasn’t desperate enough yet, so Kanji wasn’t going to stop his fingers for even a second.

But then again… He eyed one of the nipples still being pinched between his fingers and moved in. Yu wanted his fangs? Then he’d give them to him. He moved one of his hands away only to immediately bite down on that helpless nipple. Yu moaned wildly even though he was still muffled by his hand, and his hips bucked so fiercely that they slammed into Kanji hard enough to sting. Nowhere enough to distract him, of course, even if he _did_ feel Yu’s fully erect cock press against him.

With a concentration he really shouldn’t have been capable of at this point, Kanji kept his hand teasing at Yu’s other nipple while he absolutely devoured the one in his mouth. He tongued it, nipped at it, sucked it into his mouth, anything he could do to drag more of those gorgeous sounds out of Yu. He wanted to see him as desperate as possible. He wanted to at least partially realize that fantasy of him writhing on the bed and begging for Kanji to touch him.

“Hmph… Kanji…” came Yu’s still-muffled plea. “Please…”

Kanji’s eyes went wide and his heart thumped harder as he drew his mouth away, careful to replace it with his other hand even as his mind was hyperfocused on what Yu had just said. Could he actually get Yu to do it?

He wet his lips and said, “Please, what?”

He followed up with several flicks with his fingers, and Yu’s hand fell away from his drool-filled mouth as a moan poured from it.

“I want to… feel your hands properly,” Yu begged beautifully. “Take my robes off… I beg you.”

Kanji bit his lip, hard, only just managing to avoid puncturing it with one of his fangs. Fuck, it wasn’t exactly what he’d pictured Yu saying, but it was more than enough. That absolute need in his voice… there was no way Kanji was gonna be able to keep teasing him after hearing that.

He dropped one hand down to the golden sash holding up Yu’s robes and pulled at it, loosening the knot. After yanking the sash away and dropping it off the bed, he moved to do what Yu asked and peeled the robes away. Yu shakily sat up long enough to pull the sleeves off of his arms, and while he did that Kanji just stared, mouth hanging all the way open.

He was… perfect. Not a single fucking blemish on his skin anywhere. It left Kanji wondering if that was an angel thing or a ‘Yu’ thing, but either way it stirred a desire in him he hadn’t expected: the desire to give that skin some blemishes. Apart from the redness of Yu’s nipples, of course. But for now, there were some pants he needed to get rid of. Because without the robes covering it up, Kanji was now able to actually see Yu’s cock straining against the snug white pants.

He unhooked the button, pulled down the zipper, and as he dragged the pants slowly down Yu’s legs, he found his lower body was just as perfect as his upper. Goddamn, how did Kanji get so lucky?

The pants got caught momentarily on Yu’s equally perfect feet and Kanji had to take a second to work them off. While he was doing that, he absent-mindedly glanced up, and his hands froze. He’d technically already know that Yu was hard after feeling him rut against him earlier, but knowing and seeing were two completely different things. He was so hard and so strained that the tip of his cock was slightly darker than the rest of it and the head was completely drenched in precome. Then Kanji saw it twitch pitifully, and he snapped back to attention, working the pants the rest of the way off of Yu’s feet.

The blemishes could wait. Kanji had been coming at least once a week for the past seventy years. Yu hadn’t done it once, so Kanji could only imagine how desperate he was. He couldn’t bring himself to make Yu wait any longer, especially not after Yu gave him exactly what he wanted by begging so beautifully.

“Yu?” Kanji said soothingly, and Yu met his eyes with a silent plea that sent more of Kanji’s blood rushing south. “Will you sit up for me?”

He made sure to phrase it as a question just like Yu had always done for him, and while Yu didn’t answer verbally, his shaky arms pushed him up. Kanji took the opportunity to slide in behind him and lean against the pillows positioned in front of the headboard. Then he took Yu by his waist and pulled him backward until his back was to Kanji’s chest again. His head seemed to flop against Kanji’s shoulders, and from the wrecked look on his face, Kanji could see why. God, the moment Yu came was gonna be so fucking amazing. And Kanji knew the perfect way to make it happen.

He adjusted slightly to make room for his tail to work its way out from under his legs. It was long enough that it could easily reach around to the front of Yu’s body, so he let it rest on his lower belly, mere inches from his dick. Yu visibly tensed and his mouth hung open with a quiet, pleading moan that shot through Kanji like one of Lucifer’s glares.

“Yu, I wanna make you come,” Kanji whispered in his ear. “Do you want that?”

Honestly, Kanji didn’t need to ask. He already knew the answer. But he couldn’t resist the temptation to make Yu beg one more time.

Yu moaned again, but it turned into, “Yes. Dear God, yes. Please.”

Fuck, he was so goddamn perfect. Kanji really was the luckiest guy ever.

He slid his hands back up to Yu’s chest, reveling in the direct touch, and the moment he pinched both nipples between his fingers, he snaked his tail around Yu’s soaked dick. And when Kanji started pumping his tail up and down, Yu’s hips jolted again, so violently that Kanji almost lost his grip. He just managed to hold on, and when Yu’s hips came back down, Kanji shifted his legs over the top of Yu’s to try to keep him from doing that again. As fucking hot as it was, he wanted Yu to come, now.

So he strummed relentlessly at both of Yu’s nipples and pumped his tail up and down Yu’s cock as fast as he could. He didn’t have the same sort of control over his tail as he had over his hand, but after a few seconds, it was clear how little that mattered.

“Kan- ji… I’m…”

Yu’s words vanished into a series of euphoric moans as he crossed the threshold and hot cum dripped down onto Kanji’s tail while lines of it also sprayed onto Yu’s stomach and chest. But then Kanji gasped as, suddenly, Yu’s body started… glowing? He watched, and as Yu’s hips continued to roll with every wave of his orgasm, the glowing grew brighter and brighter until Kanji was damn near having to squint.

But god, it was so fucking gorgeous. Getting to see Yu come was already incredible, but this… Kanji never could have imagined this. His body maintained that glow until the orgasm ebbed and then it started slowly dimming, returning Yu’s body to its normal state.

Kanji’s eyes stayed wide, though, even after Yu’s breathing leveled out, and looked up at Kanji, satisfaction plain on his face. He placed a hand on Kanji’s cheek and turned his head to pull him into a slow, deep kiss that Kanji happily returned, but his brain was still focused more on that glow and how he absolutely, 100% wanted to see it again, soon.

When Yu was ready, he broke the kiss and spoke against Kanji’s lips, “By God’s holy grace, that was incredible.”

Kanji chuckled. “I guess taking His name in vain isn’t a sin anymore, either.”

With a cocky smile, Yu answered, “Nope.”

Kanji closed the gap with one more deep kiss, and when he pulled back, he growled, “Good, because I wanna see you glow like that again.”

Yu’s eyes opened wider. “Again? Surely you don’t mean-”

“Yeah,” Kanji interrupted. “I do. I want you a goddamn mess before we’re done here.”

Yu swallowed, but Kanji saw more arousal in his eyes than nervousness. Perfect.

“So you’d better cast that spell to clean yourself up,” Kanji said cockily. “Unless you wanna wind up completely drenched.”

The rest of the nerves vanished completely from Yu’s eyes and he did as he was asked, leaving his chest, stomach, and even Kanji’s hand completely cleaned off.

“All right,” Kanji said, brushing his nose against Yu’s ear. “Now where’s the lube?”

Yu giggled jovially. “Well, if you’re as eager as you say you are, you won’t need it.”

Kanji cocked his head to the side. “Whaddaya mean?”

Yu side-eyed him with a smirk. “Angels self-lubricate no matter the gender, Kanji. Another of God’s cruel temptations, I suppose. Endow us with such a strong desire for physical intimacy, give us the perfect bodies for it, and then punish us for seeking it out.”

The rest of what Yu said was important and he did hear it, but only one part of it really stuck out. Self-lubricate.

“Are you fucking with me right now?” Kanji asked, genuinely.

Yu laughed again. “I am not. See for yourself if you don’t believe me.”

He spoke those last few words with a suggestive tone that made Kanji immediately want to do exactly that. So he put a hand on Yu’s back and bid him bend over. Of course, Yu obeyed without hesitation, and when Kanji was able to take a look at his ass, he saw a shimmer of wetness on his hole that Kanji definitely hadn’t put there.

Reaching out to it, he ran his finger across Yu’s tight rim, and on top of Yu’s pleased moan, Kanji felt his dick grow harder at the feeling of that wetness on his fingertip. Jesus, Yu wasn’t kidding.

“Holy _shit_ ,” Kanji gasped. “That’s… _so_ fucking hot.”

Yu chuckled again and said cheekily. “Now you see why I wanted you to be on top.”

Yeah. Kanji definitely did see that, and now he was more eager to fuck Yu than he had been before. It wasn’t that Kanji minded using lube, but he sure as hell wasn’t gonna complain about another physical reaction that showed him how good Yu was feeling, especially with the bonus of fucking Yu being _way_ easier.

But it wasn’t time for that, yet. He’d definitely get there eventually, but for now, he wanted to return the favor Yu had given him all those years ago. He hadn’t exactly planned on this from the beginning, but there was no way he was gonna be able to carry on without getting a taste of him now. Minding his fangs, he leaned forward and enclosed his mouth completely around Yu’s hole, flicking his tongue against it right away.

Yu gasped and Kanji felt him desperately try to steady himself, but Kanji couldn’t bring himself to apologize for moving too quickly. That would have required moving his lips away, and he just wasn’t gonna do that right now. That lubricant coming out of him… it didn’t exactly taste “good,” but the moment it touched his tongue, he was overcome with the desire to taste more of it. That wasn’t helped by the smell. Again, not really a “good” smell, but it set his nerves on fire just as much as the taste.

Was this another thing that God had “cursed” the angels with to tempt them? Geeze, God was a prick, but it was certainly working in Kanji’s favor right now. He couldn’t get enough of this, licking, sucking, and drinking in every drop that would come out of Yu’s body. And Yu’s moans only drove Kanji on since every time he breached Yu’s rim with his tongue, Yu would cry out and stutter out some kind of praise. “Yes! So good! Keep going!” all things that passed his lips until eventually, his words turned to gibberish. When Kanji reached forward to run his fingers over Yu’s cock, he figured out why.

Fuck yes, he was about to come again already. Did angels have a shorter refractory period than devils, too? It’s like God fucking _built_ them for sex.

He brought three of his fingers up to his mouth and shed off three of his claws, leaving them as only short nubs. He’d grow them back in a minute, but for now, he wanted to get his fingers inside of that wet heat. Just for a good measure, he shoved those fingers into his mouth to wet them a little and pressed two of them to Yu’s rim. After Kanji had devoured it so thoroughly, it gave easily and he was able to push both fingers in with no trouble. And fuck, the slide, it was freaking seamless. He really was soaking wet on the inside.

But he could be wetter, so Kanji started curling his fingers. He’d made use of his own prostate several times over the years, so he had a pretty good idea of where to look. And the second he touched it, Yu choked on a gasp before his face fell straight down to the bed, leaving him with only his ass in the air. Hot. So goddamn hot.

Kanji curled his other hand around Yu’s cock, and even though the angle was a little awkward, he started pumping him slowly while working his prostate with his fingers. He saw Yu’s hands fist giant wads of the sheets beneath him, and he weakly tried to move his hips. Which pleasure he was chasing, Kanji didn’t know, but Kanji would make sure to give him plenty of both.

He gave Yu only a couple more seconds to adjust before he stopped holding back and increased the pace of both of his hands. He needed to see him come again. Honestly, he needed to see it about a zillion more times, but they only had so many hours in the day and even an angel would run out of stamina eventually.

Yu’s rim clenching around him let Kanji know Yu was close again, so he decided to give Yu a little taste of what was coming next. Yu’s ass cheeks were so smooth, perfect, and almost shone in the dim light of the bedroom. And Kanji had a very sharp pair of fangs that were dying to sink into some flesh.

When he heard Yu’s voice start to grow higher pitched and he heard the sound Yu had made before he came earlier, Kanji lunged forward and bit into Yu’s left cheek. Yu’s body convulsed wildly, and he came again the second Kanji’s teeth broke the skin. Yu’s blood flowed into Kanji’s mouth, and while blood wasn’t his kink or whatever, it was Yu’s blood, so he lapped at it and drank it down without hesitation.

And then came the glow, and as Kanji pulled back to watch, he swore it looked even more brilliant than it had the last time. Yu’s rim twitched again and again as the light shone brighter and brighter, and Kanji just drank it in. This, he knew, was never gonna get old no matter how many times he saw it. 3000 years from now, he’d still be staring at this in complete awe.

After he came down from this second intense orgasm, Yu’s legs seemed to lose their strength and he started to fall over. Kanji caught him before he could to stop him from falling into the puddle of cum he’d left all over the sheets. Kanji’s immediate thought was that he’d pushed Yu too hard because he was basically dead weight as Kanji helped him lay on his back on the other side of the bed. Yu’s forehead was shimmering with sweat when Kanji reached a hand out to run through his hair.

Yu’s eyes fluttered open and when he met Kanji’s eyes, he smiled. That made Kanji feel a little better, but he still asked, “You okay?”

Yu’s hand was shaky, but he still raised it to gently brush Kanji’s cheek. His smile grew, and Kanji’s chest squeezed.

“I’m wonderful,” Yu beamed. “I… truly can’t remember the last time I felt this good.”

As if trying to prove it, Yu waved his hand again and cast a spell to clean up the mess he’d just made on the bed. Then he sat up and hooked his hands around the back of Kanji’s neck.

“Now, as much as I’d love to see what else is hiding inside that wonderfully degenerate head of yours,” Yu said teasingly. “Even an angel has his limits, so if you wish to see what I feel like wrapped around your cock, you’d best get to it.”

Speaking of Kanji’s cock, it fucking throbbed at that last sentence. Geeze, if Yu was this good at seducing without using his ability, Kanji wondered how effortless it was with it. He’d have to let Yu use it on him one day to find out.

He took Yu’s hips and asked him, “How do you want it?”

Yu answered by using his hands to pull on the back of Kanji’s neck and lead him down to the bed. Kanji caught himself with his elbows on either side of Yu’s head and looked down at him with a raised eyebrow.

“For a dude who says he’s almost at his limit, you’ve got an awful lot of energy still.”

Yu shrugged. “I’d very much like to enjoy this to the end, so having some spare energy stores is ideal.”

Kanji laughed softly and leaned in. “Dork.”

Yu moved to close the distance, and right before their lips touched, he replied, “Look who’s talking.”

Yu took a little bit more initiative this time, pulling down on the back of Kanji’s neck again to deepen the kiss and putting that silver tongue of his back to work. A groan rumbled in Kanji’s throat and his hands moved down to Yu’s thighs. It would be tricky to do this without breaking the kiss, but he wasn’t gonna break it, not when Yu clearly wanted it so badly.

He pushed Yu’s thighs to part them, and just as a final check, he dropped his fingers down to Yu’s rim. The two fingers went right back in, and goddamn, he was even wetter than before. So he tried to slide in a third finger, and he faced only a little bit of resistance that was easily overcome with only a tiny bit more preparation. Yu moaned into his mouth the entire time, and once Kanji was sure Yu was ready, he lined up his cock.

And, god, nothing he’d ever felt in his life compared to this. He wasn’t sure what an ass normally felt like without the excess lubrication, but he didn’t care to ever find out.

“Shit…” Kanji moaned after he loudly broke the kiss. “It’s…”

He couldn’t find words. He’d never been all that good with those. Not like Yu, who could probably describe in great detail what the inside of Kanji’s ass felt like. The only word that came to his mind was hot. So damn hot. He was gonna have to take a moment if he was gonna last longer than ten damn seconds.

Yu let his arms wrap around Kanji’s shoulders, and he whispered, “It’s what? Tell me. I wanna know how it feels.”

Kanji’s hips jolted a little on instinct, pushing his dick in just a hair further and causing him to have to bite his lip. He couldn’t avoid cutting it this time, but looking down at Yu’s blood-covered lips, blood obviously didn’t bother him any more than it bothered Kanji, so he didn’t even try to stem the bleeding.

He just dropped his forehead to Yu’s chest and answered, “Feels… really really good.”

Yu moved his hands up to grasp both of Kanji’s horns and pull his head up. With a mock scowl on his face, Yu scolded, “We really have to work on your vocabulary.”

“Right now?”

Yu yanked a little harder on Kanji’s horns to drag him in for what Kanji thought was about to be another kiss. Instead, Yu flicked his tongue out to lick at the bleeding cut on Kanji’s lip. Kanji swallowed. Well, fuck, when Yu did it, it was hot.

“You have about five seconds to start fucking me, Kanji Tatsumi,” Yu said sternly, “before I shove you down and take what I want.”

With a hum, Kanji said, “That supposed to be a threat? Because that just sounds like a good time.”

“Kanji,” Yu scolded for real this time, and Kanji just had to laugh when he saw the petulant look on Yu’s face.

But despite his teasing, he really was done messing around, so he turned the laugh into a smirk and dropped his lips to Yu’s neck. He licked it, right on the tender skin where his neck met the shoulder.

“You’re so damn cute.”

Then he sunk his fangs right into that skin at the exact moment he gave Yu the first thrust. Yu’s head tried to fly back, but Kanji held it in place to keep his teeth from tearing as he started pounding Yu into the mattress. He swallowed the blood just as eagerly as he had earlier, but he didn’t let his teeth linger as long. He’d been holding back from putting marks all over Yu, and what better time than now to do it?

With a wicked smirk, he moved to the other side of Yu’s neck and left another bite. Then he dropped down to Yu’s chest and left one right beneath his left collar bone, around his right nipple, and even on one of his shoulders. With every further bite, Yu moaned louder and louder until, unbelievably, his dick stood up all over again.

Yeah, definitely a short refractory period. Lucky angel. Kanji would have given anything to have that these last seventy years. But he wasn’t complaining. Having Yu glow while Kanji was still buried inside of him would be the perfect way to end this.

Kanji let those claws he’d dulled grow back and he placed that hand in the center of Yu’s chest while he brought the other one down to grasp his cock. Yu’s body tightened around him oppressively, and Kanji’s fangs cut into his lip for the second time. Shit. He definitely wasn’t gonna last much longer, so he needed to make this count.

While giving Yu’s cock slow, gentle pumps, Kanji let his claws slowly drag down the center of Yu’s chest. He didn’t let them cut too deeply, just enough to lightly bleed, and when the claws reached his belly, he drew them back. He’d planned on finishing up right then and there, but when he saw the claw marks, he had to take a second to admire the rest of his handiwork. Yu was absolutely riddled with bite marks, and maybe it was the devil left in him, but he absolutely loved the sight. And judging by the hazy arousal in Yu’s eyes, he did, too.

With one final, bloody kiss, Kanji mumbled, “You look incredible.”

And he didn’t wait for so much as a facial expression before he dropped his free hand to Yu’s hip and started pounding away much faster than before, letting himself chase his orgasm while simultaneously trying to pump Yu into his third one. With how much tighter Yu’s body started squeezing him, Kanji truly wasn’t sure which of them would get there first.

Yu hooked his legs around Kanji’s waist and damned if he didn’t grab Kanji’s horns again. Kanji had to drop his hand to the bed to hold himself up, and he was about half a second from scolding Yu before he saw what Yu was doing.

He was arching his back off the bed, and… Oh, fuck that position. Kanji was thrusting in so much deeper now. And with that huge wave of extra pleasure came the moment Kanji had been trying to hold back. He tried to hold it back again this time, not wanting to finish before Yu even if Yu had already finished twice, but he failed miserably.

His hand’s motions turned sloppy as he growled out his own moan and filled Yu up with one of his massive loads. And it was in the middle of that orgasm that Yu suddenly came, too, his ass squeezing around Kanji like it was trying to milk even more cum out of him.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Kanji groaned, a mixture of pain and pleasure in his voice because damn it felt good, but he was hypersensitive right now. And, fuck, he was missing the glow.

He tried to pay attention, but between his orgasm and Yu's, he couldn't manage to focus, and he only caught the end of the glow as it was dimming. Crap. 

After that bit of disappointment, Kanji flopped over, only barely stopping himself from landing in Yu’s cum by catching himself on his dry hand. Yu was still gripping his horns lightly, so Kanji had to gently shake him off. It wasn’t hurting or anything, but holding himself up was already a chore without a hot angel pulling him down.

Yu ran one of his hands across Kanji’s cheek and teased, “Worn out after just one? I must say, Kanji, I expected more.”

Kanji flashed a playful glare. “Don’t tempt me, you stupid angel. I’ve got stamina for days.”

He was bluffing, of course. This had been a somewhat stressful day, and he’d successfully destressed, so he was definitely ready to fall onto the bed next to Yu and catch forty winks.

And flop over he did, pulling out and laying on his back right next to Yu. He heard the hum of Yu casting another spell, and when he glanced over, he saw the cum disappear first. But then, to Kanji’s bafflement, every single wound he’d left on Yu vanished, too, along with all of the blood painting his and Kanji’s faces.

Whoa. That was freaking awesome.

“There anything you angels can’t do?”

Yu chuckled again and rolled over to lay his head on Kanji’s chest. Kanji’s arm naturally came down to hold him, and yeah… this felt nice. Probably nicer than anything that had just happened.

“Kanji?”

“Hmm?”

Yu’s hand came up to gently stroke at the middle of Kanji’s chest, and if he weren’t so worn out, it might have been nice. But at this rate, it was gonna put him to sleep, so he brought his other hand up to cover it.

“I was just wondering,” Yu said nervously. “Where would you like to live?”

Kanji looked down at him, confusion plain on his face. He hadn’t really thought all that much about the living situation, to be honest. His attention had been decidedly elsewhere.

“Yukiko Amagi is in charge of housing for all of the newly redeemed,” Yu explained, “so I could easily take you to see her tomorrow, but…”

Kanji cocked his head to the side, “But…?”

Yu’s cheeks reddened a little. “I’d like it if you stayed here… with me.”

Kanji was so stunned by the sudden offer that he wound up a little tongue-tied. Getting to see Yu every day? Sharing a bed like this every night? Holy shit, Kanji was gonna have to learn how to control himself if he didn’t want to leave Yu too exhausted for work every day.

He slid his hand up to gently massage Yu’s scalp and answered, “All right, but only if you let me make you some new clothes. If I have to look at those same white robes 24-7, I’m gonna lose my mind.”

Yu sounded genuinely surprised when he asked, “You can make clothes?”

“Yeah,” Kanji said. “My mom owned a textile shop. I learned how to make all kinds of shit.”

Yu hummed, his surprise turning to intrigue as he leaned in to bump his nose against Kanji’s. “Then I just have one question.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that?”

With a wicked smirk, Yu asked, “Do you know how to work with leather?”


End file.
